Foster & Motley Inc. Lowers Position in Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC)

Foster & Motley Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) by 12.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 28,092 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,079 shares during the period. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Premier were worth $628,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of PINC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Premier by 12.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,013,386 shares of the company’s stock valued at $301,288,000 after buying an additional 1,597,067 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Premier by 65.8% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,609,924 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,438,000 after acquiring an additional 2,225,828 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Premier by 56.3% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,479,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,811,000 after acquiring an additional 532,918 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Premier by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,445,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,310,000 after purchasing an additional 168,719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Premier by 4.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,284,118 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,609,000 after purchasing an additional 56,425 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on PINC. StockNews.com lowered shares of Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. SVB Leerink assumed coverage on shares of Premier in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $22.50 target price for the company. Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Premier in a report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Premier in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $22.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Premier currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.15.

Premier Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PINC opened at $21.03 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.19. Premier, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.89 and a 12 month high of $33.58. The stock has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.13, a PEG ratio of 5.35 and a beta of 0.38.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $334.75 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $338.55 million. Premier had a return on equity of 11.60% and a net margin of 12.71%. As a group, analysts predict that Premier, Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Premier Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.99%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Premier’s payout ratio is presently 60.43%.

Premier Profile

Premier, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a healthcare improvement company in the United States. It operates in two segments, Supply Chain Services and Performance Services. The Supply Chain Services segment offers its members with an access to a range of products and services, including medical and surgical products, pharmaceuticals, laboratory supplies, capital equipment, information technology, facilities and construction, and food and nutritional products, as well as purchased services, such as clinical engineering and workforce solutions.