Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,700,000 shares, a decline of 23.0% from the August 31st total of 16,500,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,650,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Medtronic

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Chemung Canal Trust Co. raised its position in Medtronic by 1,467.5% during the 1st quarter. Chemung Canal Trust Co. now owns 47,902 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $4,175,000 after buying an additional 44,846 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Medtronic during the 2nd quarter worth $25,643,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Medtronic by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,034,214 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $85,199,000 after buying an additional 42,988 shares during the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its position in Medtronic by 130.3% during the 1st quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 16,829 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $1,467,000 after buying an additional 9,523 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Medtronic by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 135,268 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $11,789,000 after buying an additional 12,250 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.06% of the company’s stock.

Medtronic Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of Medtronic stock traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $89.31. The company had a trading volume of 5,232,456 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,412,290. The company’s 50-day moving average is $85.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.11. Medtronic has a twelve month low of $68.84 and a twelve month high of $91.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The company has a market cap of $114.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.84.

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 20th. The medical technology company reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. Medtronic had a net margin of 12.06% and a return on equity of 13.68%. The firm had revenue of $7.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. Medtronic’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Medtronic will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Medtronic Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.14%. Medtronic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 101.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MDT. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Medtronic from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Medtronic from $104.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Medtronic from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Medtronic to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Medtronic from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.92.

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.