Dakota Wealth Management Cuts Position in Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI)

Dakota Wealth Management reduced its stake in shares of Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI) by 27.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,253 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 1,233 shares during the quarter. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in Merit Medical Systems were worth $315,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MMSI. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Merit Medical Systems by 2.9% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,216 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $362,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in Merit Medical Systems by 9.4% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 3,376 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in Merit Medical Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $112,000. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in Merit Medical Systems by 4.9% in the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 3,621 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in shares of Merit Medical Systems by 172.3% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 117,907 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $10,134,000 after purchasing an additional 74,605 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Merit Medical Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $103.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $109.00 price target on shares of Merit Medical Systems in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Merit Medical Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 3rd. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Merit Medical Systems from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Merit Medical Systems from $110.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Merit Medical Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $108.10.

Merit Medical Systems Stock Performance

Shares of MMSI stock opened at $104.64 on Friday. Merit Medical Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.70 and a 52-week high of $108.07. The company has a quick ratio of 3.82, a current ratio of 5.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The stock has a market cap of $6.10 billion, a PE ratio of 51.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $96.60.

Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $339.85 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $334.60 million. Merit Medical Systems had a return on equity of 15.61% and a net margin of 9.05%. Merit Medical Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Merit Medical Systems, Inc. will post 3.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Merit Medical Systems news, CFO Raul Jr. Parra sold 29,646 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.02, for a total transaction of $2,905,900.92. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,361 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,603,705.22. This represents a 64.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director F. Ann Millner sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.55, for a total value of $1,269,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 32,391 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,289,306.05. This trade represents a 27.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.