iRobot Co. (NASDAQ:IRBT) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

iRobot Co. (NASDAQ:IRBT) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,060,000 shares, a decrease of 10.3% from the August 15th total of 3,410,000 shares. Currently, 11.5% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 459,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on IRBT. StockNews.com upgraded iRobot from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Citigroup cut their price objective on iRobot from $61.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 27th.

Institutional Trading of iRobot

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in iRobot by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $503,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Capital Management LLC raised its stake in iRobot by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Chicago Capital Management LLC now owns 115,313 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,218,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in iRobot by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 7,683 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $370,000 after acquiring an additional 314 shares in the last quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC raised its stake in iRobot by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 5,682 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $248,000 after acquiring an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of iRobot by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,576 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $646,000 after purchasing an additional 335 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

iRobot Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:IRBT traded up $0.39 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $35.49. 409,015 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 425,623. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.78. iRobot has a 52 week low of $31.37 and a 52 week high of $58.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $983.07 million, a P/E ratio of -2.60 and a beta of 1.08.

iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The industrial products company reported ($1.73) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.94) by $0.21. iRobot had a negative return on equity of 47.45% and a negative net margin of 36.24%. The company had revenue of $236.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $224.48 million.

About iRobot

iRobot Corporation designs, builds, and sells robots and home innovation products in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and internationally. The company offers floor care products, including Roomba floor vacuuming robots; Roomba accessories and consumables, such as the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal, replacement dirt disposal bags for the Clean Base, filters, brushes, and batteries; Braava family of automatic floor mopping robots; and Braava accessories and consumables, which include cleaning solution, washable and disposable mopping pads, replacement tanks, and batteries, as well as subscription services.