Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Medtronic (NYSE:MDT)

Needham & Company LLC restated their hold rating on shares of Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on MDT. UBS Group boosted their target price on Medtronic from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a sell rating in a report on Friday, May 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Medtronic from $102.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, May 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Medtronic in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They set a sell rating and a $83.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a sector perform rating and set a $92.00 target price on shares of Medtronic in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on Medtronic from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Medtronic presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $89.90.

Medtronic Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE MDT opened at $81.73 on Monday. Medtronic has a 1 year low of $68.84 and a 1 year high of $89.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 1.55. The company has a market capitalization of $104.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a 50-day moving average of $79.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $82.38.

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 23rd. The medical technology company reported $1.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.01. Medtronic had a return on equity of 13.47% and a net margin of 11.36%. The business had revenue of $8.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.57 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Medtronic will post 5.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Medtronic Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. This is a boost from Medtronic’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Medtronic’s dividend payout ratio is 101.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Medtronic

In other Medtronic news, CEO Geoffrey Martha sold 19,113 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.77, for a total transaction of $1,601,096.01. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 143,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,008,261.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Equity Investment Corp increased its holdings in Medtronic by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,341,079 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $110,478,000 after purchasing an additional 292,459 shares in the last quarter. Loudon Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Medtronic by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Loudon Investment Management LLC now owns 10,026 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $786,000 after purchasing an additional 874 shares in the last quarter. Chemung Canal Trust Co. increased its holdings in Medtronic by 1,467.5% in the 1st quarter. Chemung Canal Trust Co. now owns 47,902 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $4,175,000 after purchasing an additional 44,846 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Medtronic in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,643,000. Finally, Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Medtronic by 43.0% in the 4th quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 50,804 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $4,185,000 after purchasing an additional 15,265 shares in the last quarter. 82.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.