Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Position in Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 28,900 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock, valued at approximately $2,195,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned 0.05% of Merit Medical Systems as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in Merit Medical Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in Merit Medical Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Merit Medical Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Merit Medical Systems by 53.8% during the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tompkins Financial Corp purchased a new position in Merit Medical Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. 99.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Merit Medical Systems Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of MMSI opened at $71.51 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 5.45 and a quick ratio of 3.95. Merit Medical Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $62.58 and a 1 year high of $85.62. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.49. The firm has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.89.

Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.04. Merit Medical Systems had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 7.51%. The firm had revenue of $324.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $320.66 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Merit Medical Systems, Inc. will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on MMSI shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Merit Medical Systems from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $88.00 price objective on shares of Merit Medical Systems in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Bank of America started coverage on Merit Medical Systems in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $87.00 price objective for the company. CL King started coverage on Merit Medical Systems in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $88.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Merit Medical Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Merit Medical Systems

In other Merit Medical Systems news, CFO Raul Jr. Parra sold 6,480 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.95, for a total value of $479,196.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 12,007 shares in the company, valued at $887,917.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Merit Medical Systems news, CFO Raul Jr. Parra sold 6,480 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.95, for a total value of $479,196.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 12,007 shares in the company, valued at $887,917.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas James Gunderson sold 18,157 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.03, for a total value of $1,380,476.71. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,257 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,464,109.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 69,637 shares of company stock worth $5,351,673. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.