Perrigo Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:PRGO)

Perrigo Company plc (NYSE:PRGO - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 8,109 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 781% compared to the average daily volume of 920 call options.

Insider Transactions at Perrigo

In other news, Director Katherine C. Doyle sold 8,954 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.30, for a total transaction of $244,444.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,009 shares of the company's stock, valued at $164,045.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Katherine C. Doyle sold 8,954 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.30, for a total transaction of $244,444.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,009 shares of the company's stock, valued at $164,045.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Ronald Craig Janish sold 13,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.40, for a total transaction of $382,200.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,553 shares of the company's stock, valued at $604,258.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,254 shares of company stock valued at $1,411,969 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Perrigo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PRGO. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Perrigo by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,994,309 shares of the company's stock worth $482,517,000 after buying an additional 91,322 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Perrigo in the fourth quarter valued at about $313,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Perrigo by 1,578.3% in the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 168,164 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,413,000 after purchasing an additional 158,144 shares in the last quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp raised its stake in Perrigo by 93.8% in the first quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 28,449 shares of the company's stock valued at $916,000 after purchasing an additional 13,769 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC raised its stake in Perrigo by 1.3% in the first quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC now owns 35,140 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,131,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on PRGO shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Perrigo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Perrigo from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Perrigo in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $30.00 target price (down from $50.00) on shares of Perrigo in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $37.00.

Perrigo Stock Performance

Perrigo stock traded up $0.59 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $24.98. 1,977,812 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,606,717. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.09. Perrigo has a fifty-two week low of $23.89 and a fifty-two week high of $34.60. The stock has a market cap of $3.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -356.86 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Perrigo (NYSE:PRGO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The company reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.07. Perrigo had a positive return on equity of 6.79% and a negative net margin of 2.81%. The business had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Perrigo will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Perrigo Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.276 per share. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. Perrigo's dividend payout ratio is currently -1,571.43%.

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.