More Congress Members Are Selling Medtronic Stock

Shares of Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) are down about 25% year-to-date (YTD), underperforming the S&P 500 (down 19.8% YTD). Shares plunged nearly 16% since mid-September.

In November, Medtronic stock suffered another selloff after cutting its adjusted earnings per share (EPS) forecast for the full year. Medtronic initially reported that its year-over-year (YoY) revenue fell over 3% to $7.59 billion, missing the average analyst estimate.

As a result, Medtronic said that it expects adjusted EPS between $5.25 and $5.30, down from the prior range of $5.53 and $5.65, and below the consensus of $5.55. Subsequently, Medtronic stock fell below the $80 per share handle to trade near all-time lows.

More worryingly, Medtronic reduced revenue expectations, citing a slower market pace.

“We continue to expect organic revenue growth acceleration, with the second half growing faster than the first. However, given a slower pace of market and supply recovery, we’re reducing our revenue expectations for the remainder of the year,” said Karen Parkhill, Medtronic chief financial officer.

In the meantime, our congress stock trading tracker shows that several Congress members reduced their exposure to Medtronic by selling shares. Congressman Ro Khanna was selling MDT stock in the second part of October when shares were still trading above the $80 per share mark. Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger was selling a couple of days later while Rep. Dan Sullivan sold some Medtronic shares on the last day of November.

Finally, Congressman Bob Gibbs disclosed last week that he sold between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of Medtronic shares on December 21, when the stock closed at $77.16 per share.