AdvisorShares Investments LLC Has $432,000 Position in Premier, Inc. $PINC

AdvisorShares Investments LLC lowered its stake in shares of Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) by 11.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 19,706 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,474 shares during the period. AdvisorShares Investments LLC’s holdings in Premier were worth $432,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. CW Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Premier by 1.8% during the first quarter. CW Advisors LLC now owns 26,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $504,000 after buying an additional 454 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of Premier by 72.2% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 921 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Premier by 1.7% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 56,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,096,000 after buying an additional 972 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN raised its position in shares of Premier by 8.2% during the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 13,136 shares of the company’s stock valued at $288,000 after buying an additional 996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Premier by 112.1% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 1,333 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.41% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Premier news, Director John T. Bigalke sold 1,137 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.79, for a total transaction of $29,323.23. Following the sale, the director directly owned 27,536 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $710,153.44. This represents a 3.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Andy Brailo sold 6,521 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.79, for a total transaction of $168,176.59. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 99,447 shares in the company, valued at $2,564,738.13. This trade represents a 6.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 12,326 shares of company stock valued at $317,230. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PINC. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Premier from $25.00 to $28.25 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Premier from $26.00 to $28.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Premier in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Premier from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Premier from $22.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $26.07.

Premier Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Premier stock opened at $28.14 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 127.91 and a beta of 0.64. Premier, Inc. has a 1-year low of $17.23 and a 1-year high of $28.79. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $27.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.86.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of ($713.06) million for the quarter. Premier had a net margin of 2.00% and a return on equity of 7.04%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Premier, Inc. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Premier Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 1st were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. Premier’s dividend payout ratio is currently 381.82%.

Premier 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.