Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $95.00.

MDT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Medtronic from $96.00 to $93.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Medtronic from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $98.00 to $105.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised 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. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Medtronic from $106.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Medtronic in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

Medtronic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MDT opened at $91.51 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $117.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.83. Medtronic has a 1-year low of $75.96 and a 1-year high of $93.08. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $85.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 19th. The medical technology company reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.27 billion. Medtronic had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 13.79%. Medtronic’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.25 EPS. Research analysts expect that Medtronic will post 5.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Medtronic Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.06%. Medtronic’s payout ratio is 85.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Brett A. Wall sold 12,437 shares of Medtronic stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $1,119,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 40,979 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,688,110. This trade represents a 23.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Medtronic

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MDT. Avestar Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Medtronic by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 5,928 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $474,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Medtronic by 27.3% during the fourth quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 14,851 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $1,186,000 after acquiring an additional 3,184 shares during the last quarter. Two Point Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Medtronic by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Two Point Capital Management Inc. now owns 92,159 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $8,145,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Medtronic by 2,043.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,598,150 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $207,540,000 after acquiring an additional 2,476,935 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Medtronic by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,061,405 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $85,134,000 after purchasing an additional 18,900 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.06% of the company’s stock.

Medtronic Company Profile

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.