Meritage Portfolio Management Buys 23,629 Shares of Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO)

Meritage Portfolio Management boosted its stake in Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) by 29.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 104,092 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,629 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Patterson Companies were worth $2,961,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PDCO. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Patterson Companies in the fourth quarter worth $242,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Patterson Companies in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Duality Advisers LP bought a new stake in shares of Patterson Companies during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,866,000. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Patterson Companies by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. now owns 105,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,987,000 after purchasing an additional 52,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Patterson Companies by 93.5% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,107 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 1,018 shares during the period. 85.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PDCO. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Patterson Companies from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $34.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Leerink Partnrs reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Patterson Companies in a research report on Monday, February 26th. SVB Leerink initiated coverage on Patterson Companies in a report on Monday, February 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $36.00 target price on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Patterson Companies from $31.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.11.

Patterson Companies Price Performance

PDCO traded down $0.38 on Thursday, hitting $25.80. 608,239 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,015,565. Patterson Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $25.00 and a one year high of $34.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm has a market cap of $2.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.58.

Patterson Companies (NASDAQ:PDCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.01). Patterson Companies had a net margin of 2.95% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.62 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Patterson Companies, Inc. will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Patterson Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. Patterson Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.23%.

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.