Merit Financial Group LLC Has $344,000 Stock Holdings in ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD)

Merit Financial Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD) by 23.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,535 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock after selling 476 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in ResMed were worth $344,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of ResMed by 285.1% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 593 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $136,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of ResMed by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 60,489 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,105,000 after acquiring an additional 1,629 shares during the period. Cumberland Partners Ltd boosted its position in shares of ResMed by 550.0% in the fourth quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 13,000 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,973,000 after acquiring an additional 11,000 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of ResMed in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,378,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of ResMed by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 12,110 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,769,000 after acquiring an additional 3,902 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.98% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on RMD shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on ResMed from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on ResMed from $290.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. KeyCorp set a $274.00 target price on ResMed in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen cut ResMed from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, Mizuho set a $265.00 target price on ResMed in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $259.33.

Insider Activity

In other ResMed news, CEO Michael J. Farrell sold 8,009 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.85, for a total transaction of $1,680,688.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 455,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,580,799.20. The trade was a 1.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Witte Jan De sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.47, for a total value of $486,940.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,413,586.82. This represents a 25.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 30,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,075,837 over the last three months. 0.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

ResMed Stock Performance

ResMed stock opened at $251.18 on Thursday. ResMed Inc. has a 12-month low of $179.42 and a 12-month high of $263.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.29, a current ratio of 3.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $235.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $234.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.78.

ResMed (NYSE:RMD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The medical equipment provider reported $2.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.01. ResMed had a net margin of 25.34% and a return on equity of 26.17%. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.13 earnings per share. ResMed’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that ResMed Inc. will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ResMed Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.53 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 8th. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.84%. ResMed’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

ResMed Company Profile

ResMed Inc develops, manufactures, distributes, and markets medical devices and cloud-based software applications for the healthcare markets. The company operates in two segments, Sleep and Respiratory Care, and Software as a Service. It offers various products and solutions for a range of respiratory disorders, including ApneaLink Air, a portable diagnostic device that measures oximetry, respiratory effort, pulse, nasal flow, and snoring; and NightOwl, a portable, cloud-connected, and disposable diagnostic device that measures AHI based on derived peripheral arterial tone, actigraphy, and oximetry over several nights.