New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 45,721 Shares of Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its stake in shares of Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI - Free Report) by 21.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 167,395 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock after selling 45,721 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.29% of Merit Medical Systems worth $16,544,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MMSI. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Merit Medical Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in shares of Merit Medical Systems in the first quarter valued at about $44,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Merit Medical Systems during the first quarter valued at about $50,000. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new position in Merit Medical Systems during the third quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Merit Medical Systems by 2,666.7% during the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 913 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the last quarter. 99.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on MMSI. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $109.00 price objective on shares of Merit Medical Systems in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barrington Research reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $114.00 price target on shares of Merit Medical Systems in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Merit Medical Systems from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Merit Medical Systems from $85.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Merit Medical Systems from $92.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $103.36.

Merit Medical Systems Stock Performance

Shares of MMSI traded up $3.69 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $102.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 710,840 shares, compared to its average volume of 368,968. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $96.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $88.50. Merit Medical Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.46 and a 52-week high of $102.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 5.36 and a quick ratio of 3.82. The company has a market cap of $5.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.24, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.89.

Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $339.85 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $334.60 million. Merit Medical Systems had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 15.61%. Merit Medical Systems's revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Merit Medical Systems, Inc. will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.