Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $971,000 Holdings in Stryker Co. (NYSE:SYK)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Stryker Co. (NYSE:SYK) by 47.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,696 shares of the medical technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 870 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Stryker were worth $971,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in SYK. Parnassus Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Stryker during the third quarter valued at approximately $762,798,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Stryker by 66,967.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 853,769 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $308,433,000 after purchasing an additional 852,496 shares in the last quarter. RTW Investments LP purchased a new position in Stryker during the third quarter valued at approximately $143,392,000. State Street Corp grew its position in Stryker by 2.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,582,959 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $5,279,788,000 after purchasing an additional 316,404 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in Stryker by 3.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,306,994 shares of the medical technology company’s stock valued at $2,639,725,000 after purchasing an additional 215,782 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.09% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Stryker

In related news, CEO Kevin Lobo sold 57,313 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.70, for a total transaction of $21,131,303.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 100,027 shares in the company, valued at $36,879,954.90. This represents a 36.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 5.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of Stryker from $383.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Stryker from $402.00 to $418.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Stryker from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Stryker from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Stryker from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $445.00 in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Stryker presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $405.80.

Stryker Price Performance

Shares of Stryker stock opened at $394.92 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $376.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $361.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Stryker Co. has a 1-year low of $310.74 and a 1-year high of $406.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $150.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.33, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.95.

Stryker (NYSE:SYK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The medical technology company reported $4.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.14. Stryker had a net margin of 16.34% and a return on equity of 23.07%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Stryker Co. will post 12.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Stryker Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.84 per share. This is a boost from Stryker’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Stryker’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.01%.

About Stryker

Stryker Corporation operates as a medical technology company. The company operates through two segments, MedSurg and Neurotechnology, and Orthopaedics and Spine. The Orthopaedics and Spine segment provides implants for use in total joint replacements, such as hip, knee and shoulder, and trauma and extremities surgeries.