Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Takes Position in Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,957 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PINC. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Premier by 384.3% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,311,089 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,828,000 after purchasing an additional 5,007,851 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Premier by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,951,043 shares of the company’s stock worth $111,105,000 after buying an additional 773,207 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Premier by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,051,578 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,303,000 after buying an additional 772,392 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Premier in the second quarter valued at $5,138,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its position in Premier by 145.5% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 381,799 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,128,000 after acquiring an additional 226,290 shares during the period. 74.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PINC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Premier from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Premier from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Premier from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Benchmark lowered Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat, Premier presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Leigh Anderson sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.62, for a total transaction of $392,400.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 131,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,584,091.34. This represents a 13.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael J. Alkire sold 1,264 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.01, for a total value of $25,292.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 558,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,168,441.43. This represents a 0.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 94,825 shares of company stock worth $1,980,442 over the last quarter. 0.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Premier Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ PINC opened at $21.76 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $21.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.24. Premier, Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.95 and a 52-week high of $23.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.00 and a beta of 0.42.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $248.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $232.85 million. Premier had a return on equity of 10.74% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Premier, Inc. will post 1.09 EPS for the current year.

Premier Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, December 1st were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Premier’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.76%.

Premier Company 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.