Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. Sells 70 Shares of Stryker Co. (NYSE:SYK)

Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. lessened its position in shares of Stryker Co. (NYSE:SYK) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 725 shares of the medical technology company’s stock after selling 70 shares during the period. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.’s holdings in Stryker were worth $261,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SYK. Zhang Financial LLC raised its position in Stryker by 55.0% in the 4th quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 114,889 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $41,366,000 after buying an additional 40,784 shares during the last quarter. Shore Point Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Stryker during the 4th quarter worth approximately $343,000. Purus Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Stryker by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Purus Wealth Management LLC now owns 714 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $257,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Stryker by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,345 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $3,725,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, True Link Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Stryker during the fourth quarter worth $234,000. 77.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Stryker Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of SYK stock opened at $383.91 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $375.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $359.17. Stryker Co. has a 1 year low of $307.23 and a 1 year high of $398.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $146.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.95.

Stryker (NYSE:SYK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The medical technology company reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $5.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.37 billion. Stryker had a return on equity of 23.07% and a net margin of 16.34%. Stryker’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.46 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Stryker Co. will post 12.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stryker Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.84 per share. This represents a $3.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Stryker’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. Stryker’s dividend payout ratio is 36.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Stryker news, CEO Kevin Lobo sold 57,313 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.70, for a total transaction of $21,131,303.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 100,027 shares in the company, valued at $36,879,954.90. This represents a 36.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 5.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on SYK. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Stryker from $366.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Stryker from $378.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Stryker in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Stryker from $405.00 to $427.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Stryker from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $405.80.

Stryker Company Profile

Stryker Corporation operates as a medical technology company. The company operates through two segments, MedSurg and Neurotechnology, and Orthopaedics and Spine. The Orthopaedics and Spine segment provides implants for use in total joint replacements, such as hip, knee and shoulder, and trauma and extremities surgeries.