Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. Reduces Stake in Perrigo Company plc (NYSE:PRGO)

Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Perrigo Company plc (NYSE:PRGO) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 29,961 shares of the company’s stock after selling 405 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Perrigo were worth $964,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PRGO. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Perrigo in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Perrigo by 1,694.8% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 983 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Perrigo during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in shares of Perrigo during the first quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Perrigo by 34.5% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,556 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. 95.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Svend Andersen bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $27.90 per share, with a total value of $27,900.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the executive vice president now owns 101,853 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,841,698.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on PRGO shares. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Perrigo from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of Perrigo in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Perrigo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday.

Perrigo Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE PRGO traded up $0.16 on Tuesday, reaching $27.91. 994,457 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,724,893. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.96. Perrigo Company plc has a 12 month low of $24.82 and a 12 month high of $40.28. The company has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -396.57 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Perrigo (NYSE:PRGO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, May 4th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Perrigo had a positive return on equity of 6.96% and a negative net margin of 0.17%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Perrigo Company plc will post 2.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Perrigo Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 31st were given a $0.276 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 31st. Perrigo’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1,571.43%.

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.