Primerica (NYSE:PRI) Lowered to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Primerica (NYSE:PRI) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on PRI. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Primerica from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Primerica from $314.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Primerica from $313.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Primerica from $320.00 to $315.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $303.00.

Primerica Price Performance

Primerica stock opened at $292.90 on Wednesday. Primerica has a 12-month low of $184.76 and a 12-month high of $307.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.38 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $285.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $270.49.

Primerica (NYSE:PRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $5.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.81 by $0.87. Primerica had a net margin of 14.95% and a return on equity of 30.93%. The company had revenue of $774.13 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $745.25 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Primerica will post 19.75 EPS for the current year.

Primerica Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. Primerica’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.50%.

Primerica declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, November 14th that allows the company to buyback $450.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 4.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Primerica

In other Primerica news, CEO Glenn J. Williams sold 3,000 shares of Primerica stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.27, for a total transaction of $903,810.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 36,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,942,728.94. The trade was a 7.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Primerica

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Primerica by 3.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 696,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $184,807,000 after purchasing an additional 25,951 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Primerica by 30,726.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 680,961 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $161,102,000 after purchasing an additional 678,752 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of Primerica by 4.6% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 121,349 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,176,000 after purchasing an additional 5,323 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Primerica by 8.7% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 108,399 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,742,000 after purchasing an additional 8,641 shares during the period. Finally, Prospector Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Primerica by 0.3% during the third quarter. Prospector Partners LLC now owns 77,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,431,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.88% of the company’s stock.

Primerica Company Profile

Primerica, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services to middle-income households in the United States and Canada. The company operates in four segments: Term Life Insurance; Investment and Savings Products; Senior Health; and Corporate and Other Distributed Products.