First Trust Advisors LP Cuts Position in STERIS plc (NYSE:STE)

First Trust Advisors LP reduced its stake in shares of STERIS plc (NYSE:STE – Get Rating) by 71.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 50,158 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock after selling 128,293 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in STERIS were worth $8,340,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of STERIS by 6.3% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 431,406 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $71,734,000 after purchasing an additional 25,585 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC increased its holdings in STERIS by 1.0% in the third quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 61,070 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,155,000 after buying an additional 603 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of STERIS by 42.0% during the 2nd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,633 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 483 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp boosted its stake in shares of STERIS by 29.7% during the 3rd quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 8,837 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $1,469,000 after acquiring an additional 2,021 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guardian Capital LP grew its holdings in shares of STERIS by 22.6% in the 2nd quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 9,204 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $1,897,000 after acquiring an additional 1,694 shares during the period. 92.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STE has been the subject of several research reports. JMP Securities reduced their price objective on STERIS from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 15th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of STERIS from $235.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. TheStreet downgraded shares of STERIS from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 1st. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of STERIS in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of STERIS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, STERIS presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $232.83.

STERIS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE STE opened at $178.60 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 2.48 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The company has a market cap of $17.73 billion, a PE ratio of -615.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $196.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $185.78. STERIS plc has a 12 month low of $159.21 and a 12 month high of $255.93.

STERIS (NYSE:STE – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 8th. The medical equipment provider reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.19 by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $1.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.27 billion. STERIS had a negative net margin of 0.58% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The company’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that STERIS plc will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current year.

STERIS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 23rd. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. STERIS’s payout ratio is currently -648.25%.

STERIS Profile

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STERIS Plc engages in the provision of healthcare and life science product and service solutions. It operates through the following segments: Healthcare, Life Sciences, Applied Sterilization Technologies, and Dental. The Healthcare segment provides a comprehensive offering for healthcare providers worldwide, focused on sterile processing departments and procedural centers, such as operating rooms and endoscopy suites.