Headlands Technologies LLC Sells 2,424 Shares of Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC)

Headlands Technologies LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) by 11.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 19,646 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,424 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC’s holdings in Premier were worth $439,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of PINC. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Premier by 65.8% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Premier by 12.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,013,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $301,288,000 after buying an additional 1,597,067 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Premier by 7,070.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 633,188 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,614,000 after buying an additional 624,357 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Premier by 56.3% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,479,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,811,000 after buying an additional 532,918 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Premier by 61.3% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,240,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,679,000 after buying an additional 471,683 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PINC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. SVB Leerink initiated coverage on shares of Premier in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $22.50 price objective for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Leerink Partnrs reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Premier in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of Premier in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $22.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.15.

Premier Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of PINC traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $20.96. 1,195,560 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,103,782. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.18. Premier, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.89 and a 52 week high of $33.58. The company has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.08, a PEG ratio of 5.29 and a beta of 0.38.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $334.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $338.55 million. Premier had a net margin of 12.71% and a return on equity of 11.60%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Premier, Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Premier Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 1st will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Premier’s dividend payout ratio is 60.43%.

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.