Bank of New York Mellon Corp Trims Position in Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its stake in shares of Medifast, Inc. (NYSE:MED) by 4.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 56,318 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 2,406 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Medifast were worth $992,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Medifast by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 169,409 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $3,242,000 after purchasing an additional 20,832 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Medifast by 156.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 57,455 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,100,000 after acquiring an additional 35,017 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Medifast by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 54,270 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $956,000 after purchasing an additional 5,403 shares during the last quarter. Commons Capital LLC boosted its position in Medifast by 38.5% during the fourth quarter. Commons Capital LLC now owns 38,000 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $670,000 after acquiring an additional 10,563 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Medifast by 44.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 30,786 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 9,499 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Medifast from $17.00 to $16.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th.

Medifast Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MED opened at $13.87 on Wednesday. Medifast, Inc. has a 1 year low of $13.57 and a 1 year high of $39.14. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.16. The firm has a market cap of $151.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.06 and a beta of 1.13.

Medifast (NYSE:MED) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The specialty retailer reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by $0.26. Medifast had a return on equity of 10.64% and a net margin of 0.35%. The business had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.25 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Medifast, Inc. will post 0.51 EPS for the current year.

About Medifast

Medifast, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of weight loss, weight management, and healthy living products in the United States and the Asia-Pacific. It offers bars, puffs, cereal, crunchers, drinks, hearty choices, oatmeal, pancakes, pudding, soft serve, shakes, smoothies, soft bakes, and soups under the OPTAVIA, OPTAVIA ACTIVE, and Optimal Health brand names.