Medical Properties Trust Inc. (NYSE: MPW) stock jumped 0.62% on Friday to $16.32 against a previous-day closing price of $16.22. With 7.22 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 6.91 million shares. During the session, the REIT – Healthcare Facilities company that operates in wider Real Estate sector, reached to the highest price of $16.59 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $16.25. The 52-week range on MPW shows that it touched its highest point at $24.13 and its lowest point at $14.10 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $19.57. With its current market cap of 9.87 billion, MPW has annualized dividend of $1.16 while the current yield stands at 7.11%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.78.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of MPW was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 1.94%, but this was up by 4.08% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -6.64% while six-month performance fell -25.38%. The stock lost -18.73% in the past year, while it has lost -30.94% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for MPW yields 2.00 with Next year EPS estimates of 1.27. For the next quarter, that number is 0.30. This implies an EPS growth rate of 36.90% for this year and -29.49% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 9.80% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 5.20%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 598.68 million MPW shares are outstanding with a float of 594.99 million shares on hand for trading. On Jul 14, 2022, short shares totaled 42.93 million, which was 7.15% higher than short shares on Jun 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. Edward K. Aldag Jr. as the firm’s Founder, Chairman, Pres & CEO, Mr. Emmett E. McLean serves as its Founder, Exec. VP, COO & Sec.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 84.01% of MPW’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 45.51% of MPW, in contrast to 39.47% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 1.32%. As the largest shareholder in MPW with 14.29% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 85,732,657 shares worth 85,732,657. A second-largest stockholder of MPW, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 57,623,830 shares, controlling over 9.60% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in MPW, holding 36,158,910 shares or 6.03% stake. With a 4.58% stake in MPW, the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund is the largest stakeholder. A total of 27,464,022 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, which owns about 2.95% of MPW stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 17,679,181 shares valued at 269.96 million. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF holds 2.89% of the stake in MPW, owning 17,310,768 shares worth 264.34 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for MPW since 14 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 6 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 7 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 1 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 0 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With MPW analysts setting a high price target of $25.00 and a low target of $15.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $19.14. Based on these targets, MPW could surge 53.19% to reach the target high and fall by -8.09% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 17.28% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. MPW will report FY 2022 earnings on 02/02/2023. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $2.03 being high and $1.92 being low. For MPW, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $1.95. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. Medical Properties Trust Inc. surprised analysts by $0.02 when it reported $0.32 EPS against a consensus estimate of $0.30. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was $0.74. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $0.31 and the low estimate is $0.28. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $0.30.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded MPW stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 4 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 41,141 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 23 while that of sell transactions has risen to 11 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 2,806,935 while 2,126,413 shares were sold.
