Perrigo Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:PRGO)

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PRGO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler cut Perrigo from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com cut Perrigo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Argus cut Perrigo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Perrigo

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new stake in Perrigo in the third quarter worth about $3,717,000. Foundry Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Perrigo during the third quarter valued at approximately $7,111,000. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Perrigo by 44.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 120,502 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,160,000 after purchasing an additional 37,268 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Perrigo by 65.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 541,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,190,000 after purchasing an additional 213,221 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Perrigo by 94.1% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 151,520 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,974,000 after purchasing an additional 73,457 shares during the last quarter. 95.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Perrigo Trading Up 19.7 %

Shares of NYSE PRGO traded up $4.75 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $28.88. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,484,657 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,486,439. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.69 and a beta of 0.54. Perrigo has a 12 month low of $23.14 and a 12 month high of $33.46. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.18.

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

Perrigo Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Perrigo’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.02%. Perrigo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -99.15%.

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.