Perrigo Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:PRGO)

Perrigo Company plc (NYSE:PRGO) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors acquired 11,734 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 637% compared to the average daily volume of 1,593 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Jeffrey B. Kindler sold 17,598 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.27, for a total value of $497,495.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,409 shares in the company, valued at $152,912.43. The trade was a 76.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Perrigo by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 20,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $523,000 after buying an additional 427 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Perrigo by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 21,617 shares of the company’s stock valued at $567,000 after buying an additional 436 shares in the last quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Perrigo by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 5,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after buying an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Perrigo by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC now owns 21,966 shares of the company’s stock worth $565,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division lifted its stake in Perrigo by 33.3% in the 4th quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 2,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PRGO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Argus downgraded shares of Perrigo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Perrigo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Perrigo from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Perrigo has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

Perrigo Stock Performance

Shares of PRGO stock traded up $4.75 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $28.88. 5,484,657 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,486,439. Perrigo has a 12 month low of $23.14 and a 12 month high of $33.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $24.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.94 billion, a PE ratio of -24.69 and a beta of 0.54.

Perrigo (NYSE:PRGO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. Perrigo had a negative net margin of 3.64% and a positive return on equity of 7.38%. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Perrigo will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Perrigo Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.29 per share. This is a boost from Perrigo’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.02%. Perrigo’s payout ratio is -99.15%.

Perrigo Company Profile

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.