Abaxis Inc (NASDAQ:ABAX) had its price target cut by stock analysts at Piper Jaffray from $49.00 to $45.00 in a report issued on Friday, StockTargetPrices.com reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. Piper Jaffray’s price target would suggest a potential downside of 10.77% from the stock’s previous close.

ABAX has been the topic of several other reports. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Abaxis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Canaccord Genuity reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $53.00 price objective on shares of Abaxis in a report on Friday, January 22nd. Vetr downgraded shares of Abaxis from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating and set a $47.33 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Abaxis from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $39.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. Abaxis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.07.

Other large investors have made changes to their positions in the company. Conestoga Capital Advisors boosted its stake in Abaxis by 76.9% in the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors now owns 399,582 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,249,000 after buying an additional 173,648 shares in the last quarter. Simplex Trading purchased a new stake in Abaxis during the fourth quarter valued at $0. AMI Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in Abaxis by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. AMI Asset Management Corp now owns 68,595 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,819,000 after buying an additional 5,471 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Abaxis during the fourth quarter valued at $523,000. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in Abaxis by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 41,813 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,328,000 after buying an additional 748 shares in the last quarter.

In other news, VP Craig Tockman sold 560 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.44, for a total value of $30,486.40. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 1,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,729.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Abaxis (NASDAQ:ABAX) traded down 11.48% on Friday, reaching $44.64. 752,163 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02. Abaxis has a 1-year low of $37.71 and a 1-year high of $66.89. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $53.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.10.

Abaxis (NASDAQ:ABAX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 28th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.02. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.26 earnings per share. The firm had revenue of $52.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.52 million. Abaxis’s quarterly revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Abaxis will post $1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 3rd will be given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%.

Abaxis, Inc. is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of portable blood analysis systems that are used in medical specialties in human or veterinary patient care to provide clinicians with blood constituent measurements. The Company operates through the two segments: the medical market and the veterinary market. The Company’s medical market customer group consists of physicians’ office practices across multiple specialties, urgent care, outpatient and walk-in clinics, health screening operations, home care providers and nursing homes. The Company’s medical market products include: Piccolo chemistry analyzers and consumable products. The Company’s veterinary market product offerings include VetScan chemistry analyzers and veterinary reagent discs, VetScan hematology instruments and related reagent kits, VetScan VSpro specialty analyzers and related consumables, VetScan i-STAT analyzers and related consumables and VetScan rapid tests.

12 Month Chart for NASDAQ:ABAX

Stock Target Prices

Receive News & Ratings for Abaxis Inc Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Abaxis Inc and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.