Advisors Asset Management Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Perrigo Company plc $PRGO

Advisors Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Perrigo Company plc (NYSE:PRGO) by 55.5% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,163 shares of the company’s stock after selling 15,170 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Perrigo were worth $341,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PRGO. American Assets Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Perrigo during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $386,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Perrigo by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 13,029 shares of the company’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 1,053 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Perrigo during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $465,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of Perrigo by 687.2% during the 4th quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 155,033 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,986,000 after acquiring an additional 135,338 shares during the period. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Perrigo by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,331,919 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,244,000 after acquiring an additional 188,282 shares during the period. 95.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Geoffrey M. Parker bought 4,375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $22.97 per share, with a total value of $100,493.75. Following the purchase, the director owned 33,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $764,602.39. The trade was a 15.13% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Robert Willis bought 1,488 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $24.10 per share, with a total value of $35,860.80. Following the completion of the purchase, the executive vice president directly owned 41,939 shares in the company, valued at $1,010,729.90. This trade represents a 3.68% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 10,118 shares of company stock valued at $232,699 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PRGO shares. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of Perrigo from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Perrigo from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Perrigo from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Perrigo presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.00.

Perrigo Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of Perrigo stock opened at $22.52 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Perrigo Company plc has a 1 year low of $21.03 and a 1 year high of $30.93. The company has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a P/E ratio of -38.82 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $25.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.07.

Perrigo (NYSE:PRGO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. Perrigo had a positive return on equity of 9.09% and a negative net margin of 1.86%.The firm’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Perrigo Company plc will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Perrigo Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a $0.29 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. Perrigo’s payout ratio is presently -200.00%.

About Perrigo

Perrigo Company plc provides over-the-counter health and wellness solutions to enhance individual well-being in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Consumer Self-Care Americas and Consumer Self-Care International segments. The company develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes self-care consumer products, such as upper respiratory products, including cough suppressants, expectorants, and sinus and allergy relief; nutrition products consisting of infant formulas and nutritional beverages; digestive health products, including antacids, anti-diarrheal, and anti-heartburn; pain and sleep-aids products comprising pain relievers and fever reducers; and oral care products, which include toothbrushes, toothbrush replacement heads, floss, flossers, whitening products, and toothbrush covers.