Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) to Issue $0.70 Quarterly Dividend

Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the medical technology company on Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%.

Medtronic has raised its dividend by an average of 6.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 48 years. Medtronic has a payout ratio of 47.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Medtronic to earn $5.86 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.8%.

Medtronic Stock Performance

Shares of Medtronic stock traded down $1.18 on Thursday, reaching $84.14. The stock had a trading volume of 6,831,907 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,268,996. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.84. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $88.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $85.01. The stock has a market cap of $107.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.82. Medtronic has a fifty-two week low of $75.96 and a fifty-two week high of $92.68.

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 19th. The medical technology company reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.01. Medtronic had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 13.79%. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Medtronic will post 5.45 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MDT shares. Daiwa America upgraded Medtronic to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Medtronic from $96.00 to $93.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Medtronic from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $98.00 to $105.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Citigroup upped their price target on Medtronic from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Medtronic from $106.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $95.27.

Medtronic Company Profile

Medtronic plc develops, manufactures, and sells device-based medical therapies to healthcare systems, physicians, clinicians, and patients worldwide. Its Cardiovascular Portfolio segment offers implantable cardiac pacemakers, cardioverter defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices; cardiac ablation products; insertable cardiac monitor systems; TYRX products; and remote monitoring and patient-centered software.