Avinger, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGR) Short Interest Up 5.5% in August

Avinger, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGR) was the target of a large growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 65,600 shares, a growth of 5.5% from the August 15th total of 62,200 shares. Approximately 0.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 90,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.7 days.

Institutional Trading of Avinger

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Armistice Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Avinger by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 720,136 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $781,000 after acquiring an additional 52,000 shares during the period. Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Avinger in the 2nd quarter worth $49,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Avinger in the second quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Avinger in the 1st quarter worth approximately $64,000. 8.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Avinger Price Performance

NASDAQ AVGR traded up $3.66 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.73. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 26,990,683 shares, compared to its average volume of 387,096. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $10.43 and a 200 day moving average of $10.27. Avinger has a one year low of $4.14 and a one year high of $24.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.01 million, a PE ratio of -0.24 and a beta of 1.62.

Avinger (NASDAQ:AVGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The medical device company reported ($8.85) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($7.35) by ($1.50). Avinger had a negative return on equity of 6,767.92% and a negative net margin of 208.86%. The company had revenue of $2.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 million. Research analysts expect that Avinger will post -19.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AVGR shares. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Avinger in a report on Friday. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $24.00 price target on shares of Avinger in a report on Friday, July 28th.

Avinger Company Profile

Avinger, Inc, a commercial-stage medical device company, designs, manufactures, and sells a suite of image-guided and catheter-based systems used by physicians to treat patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) in the United States and internationally. It develops lumivascular platform that integrates optical coherence tomography visualization with interventional catheters to provide real-time intravascular imaging during the treatment portion of PAD procedures.