Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Buy Rating for Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI)

Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $109.00 target price on the medical instruments supplier’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 10.32% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Merit Medical Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Merit Medical Systems from $85.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $114.00 price objective on shares of Merit Medical Systems in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Merit Medical Systems from $107.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Merit Medical Systems from $92.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $103.36.

Merit Medical Systems Price Performance

Shares of MMSI stock opened at $98.80 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 6.24 and a quick ratio of 4.64. The firm has a market cap of $5.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.87. Merit Medical Systems has a one year low of $65.46 and a one year high of $101.60.

Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $339.85 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $334.60 million. Merit Medical Systems had a return on equity of 15.86% and a net margin of 9.05%. Merit Medical Systems’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Merit Medical Systems will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Merit Medical Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MMSI. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Merit Medical Systems in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in Merit Medical Systems in the first quarter valued at about $44,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Merit Medical Systems in the first quarter valued at about $50,000. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in shares of Merit Medical Systems in the third quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Merit Medical Systems by 2,666.7% in the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 913 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.66% of the company’s stock.

About Merit Medical Systems

Merit Medical Systems, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and markets single-use medical products for interventional, diagnostic, and therapeutic procedures in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Cardiovascular and Endoscopy. The company provides micropuncture kits, angiographic needles, sheaths, guide wires, and safety products; peripheral intervention, including angiography, drainage, delivery systems, and embolotherapy products; spine products, such as vertebral augmentation, radiofrequency ablation, and bone biopsy systems; oncology products; and cardiac intervention products, such as access, angiography, electrophysiology and cardiac rhythm management, fluid management, hemodynamic monitoring, hemostasis, and intervention to treat various heart conditions.