iRobot Co. (NASDAQ:IRBT) Short Interest Down 11.2% in October

iRobot Co. (NASDAQ:IRBT) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,770,000 shares, a decline of 11.2% from the September 30th total of 5,370,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 946,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days. Approximately 16.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.

iRobot Trading Up 0.7 %

IRBT stock traded up $0.06 during trading on Thursday, hitting $8.73. The company had a trading volume of 817,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,799,333. The firm has a market capitalization of $263.92 million, a P/E ratio of -1.20 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. iRobot has a 52-week low of $5.83 and a 52-week high of $42.14. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.84.

iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The industrial products company reported ($1.96) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.77) by ($0.19). iRobot had a negative return on equity of 128.49% and a negative net margin of 25.29%. The firm had revenue of $166.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $168.73 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($1.73) EPS. iRobot’s quarterly revenue was down 29.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that iRobot will post -4.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on IRBT shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of iRobot in a report on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of iRobot from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On iRobot

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of iRobot in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,083,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its holdings in shares of iRobot by 131.1% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 79,925 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 337,057 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of iRobot in the 1st quarter valued at $1,277,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in iRobot by 185.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 196,431 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,789,000 after buying an additional 127,602 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of iRobot in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $529,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.42% of the company’s stock.

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.