Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Buy Rating for Stryker (NYSE:SYK)

Stryker (NYSE:SYK)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $442.00 target price on the medical technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 19.02% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on SYK. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Stryker from $400.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $422.00 price objective on Stryker in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Stryker from $425.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley raised Stryker from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $445.00 in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Stryker from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Stryker has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $421.90.

Stryker Price Performance

Shares of Stryker stock opened at $371.38 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $384.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $374.03. Stryker has a 52 week low of $314.93 and a 52 week high of $406.19. The company has a market capitalization of $141.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.86, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Stryker (NYSE:SYK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The medical technology company reported $4.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.14. Stryker had a return on equity of 23.58% and a net margin of 13.25%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.46 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Stryker will post 13.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Allan C. Golston sold 2,458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $383.07, for a total value of $941,586.06. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,705,827.65. This represents a 14.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Ronda E. Stryker sold 201,392 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $392.24, for a total value of $78,993,998.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,642,075 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,428,567,498. This trade represents a 5.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Stryker

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Stryker by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,698,828 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $11,773,213,000 after buying an additional 252,188 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Stryker by 2.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,582,959 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $5,279,788,000 after buying an additional 316,404 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Stryker by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,109,722 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $4,000,056,000 after buying an additional 54,693 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Stryker by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,034,844 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $2,892,946,000 after buying an additional 727,850 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Stryker by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,073,562 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $2,539,033,000 after buying an additional 168,436 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.09% of the company’s stock.

About Stryker

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.