Aware (NASDAQ:AWRE) Director John Stafford III Buys 16,754 Shares

Aware, Inc. (NASDAQ:AWRE) Director John Stafford III purchased 16,754 shares of Aware stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $1.28 per share, with a total value of $21,445.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,121,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,556,101.12. The trade was a 0.33% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Aware Trading Down 4.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:AWRE traded down $0.06 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $1.17. 216,811 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 35,620. The stock has a market cap of $25.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.18 and a beta of 0.84. Aware, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $1.10 and a fifty-two week high of $2.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $1.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.12.

Aware (NASDAQ:AWRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 4th. The software maker reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter. Aware had a negative net margin of 33.97% and a negative return on equity of 21.19%. The company had revenue of $4.66 million during the quarter.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aware

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Aware by 14.3% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 80,000 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $193,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Aware by 1.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 840,650 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,026,000 after purchasing an additional 13,070 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Aware by 71.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 34,595 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 14,436 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Aware during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Aware during the 3rd quarter worth about $42,000. 24.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aware in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Sell”.

Aware Company Profile

Aware, Inc is a technology company specializing in biometric software and image processing solutions. Its core offerings include fingerprint, face and iris recognition algorithms, biometric template management, and mobile enrolment tools designed to capture and verify identities in secure environments. The company’s software development kits (SDKs) and web services APIs enable system integrators, device manufacturers and application developers to embed biometric and forensic capabilities into their products and services.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, Aware evolved from an imaging technology provider into a leading vendor of biometric software.