Liberty One Investment Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT)

Liberty One Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) by 7.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 50,861 shares of the medical technology company’s stock after buying an additional 3,640 shares during the quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Medtronic were worth $4,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HF Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Medtronic by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 8,154 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Medtronic by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,878 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $549,000 after buying an additional 305 shares during the period. Nexus Investment Management ULC boosted its stake in Medtronic by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 225,279 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $17,995,000 after buying an additional 7,855 shares during the last quarter. Smith Salley Wealth Management grew its holdings in Medtronic by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Smith Salley Wealth Management now owns 176,688 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $14,114,000 after buying an additional 3,520 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. increased its stake in shares of Medtronic by 30.0% during the 4th quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 6,262 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $500,000 after acquiring an additional 1,446 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Medtronic from $99.00 to $96.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Medtronic from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $98.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays increased their target price on Medtronic from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Medtronic in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Medtronic from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $95.00.

Medtronic Stock Performance

Medtronic stock opened at $88.23 on Friday. Medtronic plc has a 12-month low of $75.96 and a 12-month high of $92.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $113.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $83.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $85.10.

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 19th. The medical technology company reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.27 billion. Medtronic had a return on equity of 13.79% and a net margin of 13.00%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Medtronic plc will post 5.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Medtronic Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. Medtronic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 85.63%.

Insider Transactions at Medtronic

In related news, EVP Brett A. Wall sold 9,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.41, for a total value of $792,038.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 40,708 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,273,330.28. The trade was a 19.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Medtronic 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.