Taking the lead: Medical Properties Trust Inc. (MPW)

Medical Properties Trust Inc. (NYSE: MPW) stock fell -3.34% on Friday to $6.36 against a previous-day closing price of $6.58. With 21.05 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 11.32 million shares. During the session, the REIT – Healthcare Facilities company that operates in wider Real Estate sector, reached to the highest price of $6.51 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $6.24. The 52-week range on MPW shows that it touched its highest point at $14.04 and its lowest point at $6.31 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $9.80. With its current market cap of 3.94 billion, MPW has annualized dividend of $0.60 while the current yield stands at 9.43%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.06.

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 down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -4.22%, but this was down by -13.94% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -30.26% while six-month performance fell -20.60%. The stock lost -53.88% in the past year, while it has lost -42.91% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for MPW yields 0.12 with Next year EPS estimates of 0.85. For the next quarter, that number is 0.19. This implies an EPS growth rate of 35.80% for this year and 140.17% for next year. EPS is expected to decline by -9.40% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 12.80%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 598.34 million MPW shares are outstanding with a float of 590.74 million shares on hand for trading. On Aug 30, 2023, short shares totaled 128.61 million, which was 21.49% higher than short shares on Jul 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Edward K. Aldag Jr. as the firm’s Founder, Chairman, Pres & CEO, Mr. R. Steven Hamner CPA serves as its Founder, Exec. VP, CFO & Director.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 78.40% of MPW’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 44.66% of MPW, in contrast to 34.51% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 2.05%. As the largest shareholder in MPW with 14.29% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 85,500,120 shares worth 85,500,120. A second-largest stockholder of MPW, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 57,100,848 shares, controlling over 9.54% of the firm’s shares. Cohen & Steers Capital Management is the third largest shareholder in MPW, holding 46,120,255 shares or 7.71% stake. With a 4.18% stake in MPW, the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund is the largest stakeholder. A total of 24,995,055 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, which owns about 3.23% of MPW stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 19,314,311 shares valued at 139.45 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF holds 3.12% of the stake in MPW, owning 18,637,756 shares worth 134.56 million.

An Overview of Recent Financials:

Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Jun 29, 2023, MPW reported revenue of $400.23M and operating income of $255.90M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $356.43M and diluted EPS was $0.32.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for MPW since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. 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 $12.00 and a low target of $7.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $9.10. Based on these targets, MPW could surge 88.68% to reach the target high and rise by 10.06% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 43.08% 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.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded MPW stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 6 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 53,725 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 23 while that of sell transactions has risen to 22 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 481,645 while 519,027 shares were sold.