Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes weight loss, weight management, healthy living products, and other consumable health and nutritional products in the United States and the Asia-Pacific. The company offers bars, bites, pretzels, puffs, cereal crunch, drinks, hearty choices, oatmeal, pancakes, pudding, soft serves, shakes, smoothies, soft bakes, and soups under the OPTAVIA, Optimal Health by Take Shape for Life, and Flavors of Home brands. It markets its products through point-of-sale transactions over ecommerce platform. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Medifast from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Medifast from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $345.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 4th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Medifast from $352.00 to $278.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 4th.
Medifast Price Performance
Shares of MED Stock opened at $142.87 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The firm's 50-day moving average is $171.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.97. Medifast has a 12 month low of $125.18 and a 12 month high of $239.56. The company has a market capitalization of $1.57 billion, a PE ratio of 10.60 and a beta of 1.08.
Medifast Announces Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 28th were paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 27th. Medifast's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.66%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, Director Jeffrey J. Brown bought 3,940 shares of Medifast stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 9th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $126.54 per share, with a total value of $498,567.60. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,940 shares of the company's stock, valued at $498,567.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Jeffrey J. Brown bought 3,940 shares of Medifast stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 9th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $126.54 per share, with a total value of $498,567.60. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,940 shares of the company's stock, valued at $498,567.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jeffrey J. Brown purchased 399 shares of Medifast stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $146.01 per share, for a total transaction of $58,257.99. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 35,938 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,247,307.38. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.