American Trust Lowers Position in STERIS plc (NYSE:STE)

American Trust cut its stake in STERIS plc (NYSE:STE – Get Rating) by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,860 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock after selling 85 shares during the quarter. American Trust’s holdings in STERIS were worth $309,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of STERIS by 0.7% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 15,327 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,706,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of STERIS by 25.6% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 1,919 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $471,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in shares of STERIS by 8.1% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 13,523 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,269,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of STERIS by 24.4% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 2,345 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $567,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of STERIS by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,525,769 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,786,586,000 after purchasing an additional 143,253 shares during the last quarter. 92.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

STERIS Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE:STE opened at $176.56 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.48, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. STERIS plc has a 12 month low of $159.21 and a 12 month high of $255.93. The company has a market cap of $17.53 billion, a PE ratio of -608.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $195.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.36.

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

STERIS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 24th will be given a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 23rd. STERIS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -648.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities lowered their target price on shares of STERIS from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 15th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of STERIS in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of STERIS in a research report on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of STERIS from $235.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of STERIS from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $232.83.

STERIS Company 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.