Boston, MA 06/12/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Medical technology company, Becton, Dickinson and Co. (NYSE:BDX) shares were sold by an insider taking advantage of the prevailing price, which is close to a year high price. The action of an insider comes on the backdrop of a consensus among analysts for a Hold rating of its shares.
Insider Sells Shares
The company’s executive vice president Gary Cohen had offloaded about 12.4K shares on June 10, according to the company’s filing with Securities Exchange Commission or SEC. The stock hit a high of $120.08 and a low of $118.75 on June 10 before it closed at $119.45. However, the executive could sell part of his stake at an average price of $119.24. It has yielded him a total of approximately $1.48 million.
Even after selling sizeable shares, the Becton, Dickinson and Co. executive is still holding little over 70K shares of the company. At current market price, his holding is valued around $8.39 million.
The stock has a yearly high of $120.66 and a low of $94.25. On June 11, the stock closed below at $119.06. The technical barometer of 50-day and 200-day moving averages was $116.06 and $112.94 respectively, indicating higher trading price currently. The sale of shares by an insider has not impacted the overall performance of the stock on Wednesday.
Interestingly, Becton, Dickinson and Co. (NYSE:BDX) ’s first quarter earnings fell shy of analysts’ expectations by five cents a year and revenue by $0.02 billion.
Analyst Rating
The consensus rating among analysts is a Hold rating on Becton, Dickinson and Co. shares with a price tag of $109.62. Some of the analysts like Sun Trust have lifted the price target to $138.00 from $128.00 with a Buy rating of the company’s stock. RBC Capital Markets has a Sector Perform rating.
While only one analyst put the stock on Sell radar, five analysts have a hold rating and six others have a Buy rating of Becton, Dickinson and Co. shares.
Becton, Dickinson and Co. (NYSE:BDX) is scheduled to announce its second quarter results on July 28 and analysts’ expect Becton, Dickinson and Co. to earn $1.67 a share on revenues of $2.14 billion.
