Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) Trading 0.1% Higher – Should You Buy?

Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) shot up 0.1% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $85.89 and last traded at $85.32. 3,133,041 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 58% from the average session volume of 7,448,987 shares. The stock had previously closed at $85.25.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MDT. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Medtronic from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Medtronic from $96.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Medtronic from $93.00 to $89.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Medtronic from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Medtronic in a research note on Monday, November 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Medtronic has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.00.

Medtronic Price Performance

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.01. The firm has a market cap of $109.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 19th. The medical technology company reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.01. Medtronic had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 13.79%. The business had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Medtronic plc will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Medtronic Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. Medtronic’s dividend payout ratio is 85.63%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Brett A. Wall sold 9,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.41, for a total transaction of $792,038.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 40,708 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,273,330.28. This represents a 19.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Medtronic

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Medtronic during the 3rd quarter valued at about $694,000. Olstein Capital Management L.P. raised its position in Medtronic by 19.2% in the 3rd quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. now owns 87,000 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $7,833,000 after purchasing an additional 14,000 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC raised its position in Medtronic by 32.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 73,517 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $5,873,000 after purchasing an additional 18,057 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its position in Medtronic by 322.6% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 73,593 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $6,626,000 after purchasing an additional 56,178 shares during the period. Finally, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Medtronic in the 3rd quarter worth about $9,486,000. 82.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Medtronic

Medtronic plc develops, manufactures, and sells device-based medical therapies to healthcare systems, physicians, clinicians, and patients worldwide. Its Cardiovascular Portfolio segment offers implantable cardiac pacemakers, cardioverter defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices; cardiac ablation products; insertable cardiac monitor systems; TYRX products; and remote monitoring and patient-centered software.