Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $26.57.

Several equities analysts have commented on PDCO shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Patterson Companies from $27.00 to $31.35 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Patterson Companies from $25.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Leerink Partners restated a “market perform” rating and set a $31.35 price objective (up previously from $29.00) on shares of Patterson Companies in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Patterson Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Mizuho started coverage on shares of Patterson Companies in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $23.00 price objective for the company.

Patterson Companies Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PDCO opened at $30.89 on Thursday. Patterson Companies has a fifty-two week low of $19.45 and a fifty-two week high of $31.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $26.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.06, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.89.

Patterson Companies (NASDAQ:PDCO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. Patterson Companies had a return on equity of 19.77% and a net margin of 2.37%. Patterson Companies’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Patterson Companies will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Donald Zurbay sold 1,962 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.08, for a total transaction of $45,282.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 222,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,140,746.88. This represents a 0.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PDCO. Choreo LLC acquired a new stake in Patterson Companies in the second quarter valued at $261,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Patterson Companies by 83.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 902,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,775,000 after buying an additional 411,012 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Patterson Companies by 52.8% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 120,186 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,899,000 after buying an additional 41,507 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Patterson Companies by 0.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,915,315 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,436,000 after acquiring an additional 23,344 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Patterson Companies in the second quarter valued at $227,000. 85.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Patterson Companies

Patterson Companies, Inc engages in the distribution of dental and animal health products in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The company operates through three segments: Dental, Animal Health, and Corporate segments. The Dental segment offers consumable products, including infection control, restorative materials, and instruments; basic and advanced technology and dental equipment; practice optimization solutions, such as practice management software, e-commerce, revenue cycle management, patient engagement solutions, and clinical and patient education systems.