Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) Stock Rating Lowered by Canaccord Genuity Group

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) was downgraded by investment analysts at Canaccord Genuity Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $21.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $27.00. Canaccord Genuity Group’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 8.19% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Leerink Partnrs reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Premier in a research note on Monday, February 26th. StockNews.com lowered Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, SVB Leerink initiated coverage on Premier in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $22.50 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.77.

Premier Trading Down 6.3 %

PINC stock opened at $19.41 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $21.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.22. Premier has a fifty-two week low of $18.89 and a fifty-two week high of $28.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.96, a P/E/G ratio of 5.22 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.32.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $334.75 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $338.55 million. Premier had a return on equity of 11.60% and a net margin of 12.71%. Analysts expect that Premier will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Premier by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,213,088 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,805,000 after acquiring an additional 199,702 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Premier by 65.8% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,609,924 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,438,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225,828 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Premier in the 4th quarter valued at about $51,271,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Premier by 139.3% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,121,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,441,000 after purchasing an additional 1,235,017 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Premier by 56.3% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,479,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,811,000 after purchasing an additional 532,918 shares during the period. 74.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.