Masimo Co. (NASDAQ:MASI) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Masimo Co. (NASDAQ:MASI) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,930,000 shares, a decline of 41.8% from the August 15th total of 6,750,000 shares. Currently, 8.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 663,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Masimo

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its position in Masimo by 282.0% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 116,712 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $13,680,000 after acquiring an additional 86,162 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its holdings in Masimo by 11.6% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 54,839 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $8,053,000 after purchasing an additional 5,688 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in Masimo by 99.0% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,389 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $163,000 after buying an additional 691 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Masimo by 32.1% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,009 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,323,000 after buying an additional 2,187 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Masimo by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,781,343 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $560,421,000 after buying an additional 26,473 shares in the last quarter. 85.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MASI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Masimo from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Masimo in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $144.67.

Masimo Stock Performance

MASI stock opened at $113.00 on Friday. Masimo has a 1 year low of $75.22 and a 1 year high of $153.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.87 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 2.09. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $114.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $125.70.

Masimo (NASDAQ:MASI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical equipment provider reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.09. Masimo had a net margin of 3.94% and a return on equity of 14.07%. The firm had revenue of $496.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $493.92 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.62 EPS. Masimo’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Masimo will post 3.87 EPS for the current year.

About Masimo

Masimo Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets various patient monitoring technologies, and automation and connectivity solutions worldwide. The company offers masimo signal extraction technology (SET) pulse oximetry with measure-through motion and low perfusion pulse oximetry monitoring to address the primary limitations of conventional pulse oximetry; Masimo rainbow SET platform, including rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry products that allows noninvasive monitoring of carboxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin, hemoglobin concentration, fractional arterial oxygen saturation, oxygen content, pleth variability index, rainbow pleth variability index, respiration rate from the pleth, and oxygen reserve index, as well as acoustic respiration monitoring, SedLine brain function monitoring, NomoLine capnography and gas monitoring, and regional oximetry.