Masimo (NASDAQ:MASI) Lifted to “Buy” at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Masimo (NASDAQ:MASI) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $170.00 target price on the medical equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $148.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Masimo from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and raised their price objective for the company from $117.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Monday, March 25th. BTIG Research boosted their target price on Masimo from $145.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Masimo from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, March 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a hold rating and set a $121.00 price objective (up from $107.00) on shares of Masimo in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Masimo from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Masimo currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $137.43.

Masimo Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MASI opened at $136.62 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.52 and a beta of 0.97. Masimo has a 1 year low of $75.22 and a 1 year high of $198.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $135.65 and a 200-day moving average of $113.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Masimo (NASDAQ:MASI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical equipment provider reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.43. The company had revenue of $548.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $545.69 million. Masimo had a return on equity of 13.77% and a net margin of 3.98%. The business’s revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.32 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Masimo will post 3.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Masimo

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cardinal Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Masimo by 25.1% in the 1st quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 14,764 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after acquiring an additional 2,962 shares during the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in Masimo in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Masimo in the first quarter worth $298,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Masimo by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,781,343 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $560,421,000 after purchasing an additional 26,473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Masimo by 40.5% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 175,510 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $20,572,000 after buying an additional 50,572 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.96% of the company’s stock.

Masimo Company Profile

Masimo Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets various patient monitoring technologies, and automation and connectivity solutions worldwide. The company offers masimo signal extraction technology (SET) pulse oximetry with measure-through motion and low perfusion pulse oximetry monitoring to address the primary limitations of conventional pulse oximetry; Masimo rainbow SET platform, including rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry products that allows noninvasive monitoring of carboxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin, hemoglobin concentration, fractional arterial oxygen saturation, oxygen content, pleth variability index, rainbow pleth variability index, respiration rate from the pleth, and oxygen reserve index, as well as acoustic respiration monitoring, SedLine brain function monitoring, NomoLine capnography and gas monitoring, and regional oximetry.