Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO) Short Interest Up 53.1% in May

Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,960,000 shares, an increase of 53.1% from the April 30th total of 1,280,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 609,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days. Currently, 5.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Benchmark cut their price objective on shares of Harvard Bioscience from $4.50 to $3.00 and set a “speculative buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Harvard Bioscience to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Harvard Bioscience in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th.

Harvard Bioscience Price Performance

HBIO stock traded down $0.20 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $0.47. The company had a trading volume of 13,379,138 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,890,993. The company has a market capitalization of $20.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.43 and a beta of 1.44. Harvard Bioscience has a 12-month low of $0.28 and a 12-month high of $3.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $0.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.22.

Institutional Trading of Harvard Bioscience

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new stake in Harvard Bioscience in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Harvard Bioscience in the 1st quarter worth about $33,000. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Harvard Bioscience in the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in shares of Harvard Bioscience by 221.1% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 75,985 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 52,319 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. bought a new stake in shares of Harvard Bioscience in the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.87% of the company’s stock.

About Harvard Bioscience

Harvard Bioscience, Inc develops, manufactures, and sells technologies, products, and services for life science applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers cellular and molecular technology products, such as syringe and peristaltic infusion pump products; electroporation and electrofusion instruments, amino acid analyzers, spectrophotometers, and other equipment for molecular level testing and research; and precision scientific measuring instrumentation and equipment, including data acquisition systems for cellular analysis, complete micro electrode array solutions for in vivo recordings, and in vitro systems for extracellular recordings.