Stryker Corporation $SYK Shares Sold by QRG Capital Management Inc.

QRG Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 56,362 shares of the medical technology company’s stock after selling 12,319 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Stryker were worth $20,835,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Stryker by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,500,571 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $13,253,831,000 after purchasing an additional 440,607 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Stryker by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,956,732 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $5,929,765,000 after purchasing an additional 150,204 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Stryker by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,393,611 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $2,910,445,000 after buying an additional 79,654 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in Stryker by 307.6% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,596,508 shares of the medical technology company’s stock worth $2,214,146,000 after buying an additional 4,223,366 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Stryker during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,882,173,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.09% of the company’s stock.

Stryker Stock Performance

Stryker stock opened at $364.45 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $360.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $374.07. The stock has a market cap of $139.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.13. Stryker Corporation has a 1-year low of $329.16 and a 1-year high of $406.19.

Stryker (NYSE:SYK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The medical technology company reported $3.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.04 billion. Stryker had a return on equity of 24.07% and a net margin of 12.07%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.87 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Stryker Corporation will post 13.47 EPS for the current year.

Stryker Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Stryker’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. Stryker’s dividend payout ratio is 46.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $399.00 target price on Stryker in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Stryker in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Stryker from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $418.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Stryker from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Stryker from $443.00 to $453.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $430.00.

Insider Activity at Stryker

In other Stryker news, CFO Preston Wendell Wells sold 165 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $365.88, for a total value of $60,370.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 6,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,449,200.72. This represents a 2.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Ronda E. Stryker sold 276,173 shares of Stryker stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.28, for a total transaction of $97,566,397.44. Following the sale, the director owned 2,702,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $954,600,714.24. This represents a 9.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 522,118 shares of company stock worth $185,381,932. Company insiders own 5.90% of the company’s stock.

Stryker Company Profile

Stryker Corporation is a global medical technology company that designs, manufactures and markets a broad range of products and services for use in hospitals, surgeons’ offices and other healthcare facilities. Its primary business activities span orthopedics (including joint replacement implants, trauma and extremities products), surgical equipment and operating room technologies (such as visualization, navigation and powered instruments), neurotechnology and spine solutions, and patient-handling and emergency medical equipment.