Piper Sandler Boosts Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI) Price Target to $97.00

Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI) had its target price upped by Piper Sandler from $95.00 to $97.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the medical instruments supplier’s stock.

MMSI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Merit Medical Systems from $84.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Merit Medical Systems in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. They set a neutral rating and a $87.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Merit Medical Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Barrington Research reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $98.00 target price on shares of Merit Medical Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, CL King began coverage on shares of Merit Medical Systems in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a buy rating and a $88.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $92.78.

Merit Medical Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MMSI opened at $78.97 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $74.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $74.10. The company has a current ratio of 6.03, a quick ratio of 3.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The company has a market cap of $4.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.91. Merit Medical Systems has a twelve month low of $62.58 and a twelve month high of $85.62.

Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.06. Merit Medical Systems had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 15.02%. The company had revenue of $323.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. Merit Medical Systems’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Merit Medical Systems will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Merit Medical Systems

In related news, CFO Raul Jr. Parra sold 6,480 shares of Merit Medical Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.95, for a total value of $479,196.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,007 shares in the company, valued at $887,917.65. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Raul Jr. Parra sold 6,480 shares of Merit Medical Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.95, for a total value of $479,196.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,007 shares in the company, valued at $887,917.65. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Joseph Wright sold 25,000 shares of Merit Medical Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.68, for a total transaction of $1,892,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 42,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,195,436.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 49,637 shares of company stock worth $3,751,673. Corporate insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Merit Medical Systems by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,895,695 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $268,881,000 after acquiring an additional 520,423 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Merit Medical Systems by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,174,483 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $164,717,000 after acquiring an additional 22,545 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Merit Medical Systems by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,388,905 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $95,862,000 after acquiring an additional 16,488 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Merit Medical Systems by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,306,702 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $99,258,000 after acquiring an additional 41,065 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its holdings in Merit Medical Systems by 25.9% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,031,173 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $71,172,000 after acquiring an additional 212,256 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.66% of the company’s stock.

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.