The Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) share price is heading south on Wednesday morning.
This comes amid the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) falling wayside today after global markets dipped on the expectation that the United States Federal Reserve will lift interest rates by 75 basis points.
At the time of writing, the hearing solution company's shares are down 1.5% to $203.84.
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Why are Cochlear shares falling on Wednesday?
Investors are offloading the Cochlear share price as it trades ex-dividend today.
This means if you purchased the company's shares yesterday or before, you will be eligible for the latest dividend.
However, when a company's shares trade ex-dividend, the share price tends to fall in proportion to the dividend paid out. This can also vary on how the market is tracking for the day, as well as investor sentiment.
For those eligible for Cochlear's final dividend, shareholders will receive a payment of $1.45 per share on 17 October.
The dividend is 40% franked.
Are Cochlear shares a buy now?
Following the company's financial scorecard, a number of brokers weighed in on the Cochlear share price.
As reported by ANZ Share Investing, analysts at Morgan Stanley raised its price target by 4.1% to $202 for Cochlear shares.
In addition, the team at Wilsons raised its target by 4% to $245 apiece. Based on the current share price, this implies an upside of roughly 20%.
On the other hand, Macquarie cut its rating to underperform from neutral and slashed its price target by 1.5% to $194.
This indicates a downside of 5% from where Cochlear shares trade today.
Cochlear share price summary
The Cochlear share price has dropped 13.8% over the past 12 months.
In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Health Care Index (ASX: XHJ) is down around14% for the same period.
Based on today's price, Cochlear commands a market capitalisation of roughly $13.61 billion, and has a dividend yield of 1.4%.
