Zacks Investment Research upgraded OraSure Technologies’ (NASDAQ:$OSUR) rating from ‘Hold’ to ‘Buy’. The firm also recommended a target price of $25.00, which is a 14.63% upside from the previous close.

OSUR is a medical instrument manufacturer who specializes in making devices that can be used to orally detect illnesses such as HIV or conditions such as drug abuse, from collected patient saliva. The company sells to a wide range of customers including community centers, clinics, hospitals, workplaces, insurance companies, public health agencies, and even consumers. They also produce and market other diagnostic equipment.

Other firms have recently weighed in on the medical instrument supplier;

• On July 11th, Stephens restated an “Overweight” rating with a target price of $19.00, up from previous forecasts for $14.00.
• On July 24th, BidaskClub lowered OSUR to a ‘Buy’ from a ‘Strong Buy’ rating.
• On September 12th, Jefferies Group LLC reiterated a ‘Buy’ rating with a $20.00 target price.
• Last Tuesday (September 19th), Cannacord Genuity reiterated a ‘Buy’ rating with a target price of $22.00.

All together, there were six ‘Buy’ ratings and one ‘Hold’ rating, creating a consensus of ‘Buy’ at a target price of $18.04.

On Wednesday, the stock opened at $21.81 with a 52 week low and high of $7.09 and $22.25, respectively. The company has a market cap of $1.30 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.31. The company’s Beta is 1.57. The stock’s 50 and 200 day Moving Averages are $20.72 and $16.18 respectively.

OSUR’s last earnings results were announced on Wednesday, August 2nd. The report included;

• Revenue of $40.18 million, compared to analyst estimates of $36.54 million. This was up 28.1% compared to the same quarter last year.
• $0.09 EPS, an increase on Zacks Consensus of $0.02.
• A Return on Equity of 15.64% and a Net Margin of 22.29%.

In insider trading news, OSUR CEO Douglas A. Michels sold 290,495 shares at an average price of $16.75 and a total value of $4,865,791.25 on June 27th. He now owns $14,974,701 or shares in the company, totaling in at 894,012 shares. CFO Ronald H Spair also sold shares, numbering at 510.112 at an average price of $20.66 for a total of $10,538,913.92 on August 7th. Insider shares make up roughly 6.40% of the stock.

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