How to buy Patterson Companies stock | 28.02

Patterson Companies, Inc is a medical distribution business based in the US. Patterson Companies shares (PDCO) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Patterson Companies employs 7,800 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$5.4 billion.

How to buy shares in Patterson Companies

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Patterson Companies. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: PDCO. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Patterson Companies reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$28.02, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Patterson Companies, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Patterson Companies. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Patterson Companies's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Patterson Companies's share price has had significant positive movement.

Its last market close was USD$28.02, which is 18.88% up on its pre-crash value of USD$22.73 and 116.37% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$12.95.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Patterson Companies shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$724.66 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$1,254.18.

Patterson Companies share price

Use our graph to track the performance of PDCO stocks over time.

Patterson Companies shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-11-24.

Latest market close	USD$28.02
52-week range	USD$12.4344 - USD$30.082
50-day moving average	USD$26.5483
200-day moving average	USD$23.9793
Wall St. target price	USD$26.38
PE ratio	36.56
Dividend yield	USD$1.04 (3.73%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$0.498

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Is it a good time to buy Patterson Companies stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Patterson Companies, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Patterson Companies price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $28.02 from 2020-11-16

1 week (2020-11-20)	N/A
1 month (2020-10-30)	12.62%
3 months (2020-08-28)	N/A
6 months (2020-05-28)	N/A

1 year (2019-11-27)	N/A
2 years (2018-11-27)	N/A
3 years (2017-11-27)	N/A
5 years (2015-11-27)	N/A

Is Patterson Companies under- or over-valued?

Valuing Patterson Companies stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Patterson Companies's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Patterson Companies's P/E ratio

Patterson Companies's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 37x. In other words, Patterson Companies shares trade at around 37x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Patterson Companies's PEG ratio

Patterson Companies's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.7369. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Patterson Companies's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Patterson Companies's EBITDA

Patterson Companies's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$307.4 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Patterson Companies's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Patterson Companies financials

Revenue TTM	USD$5.4 billion
Operating margin TTM	4.18%
Gross profit TTM	USD$1.2 billion
Return on assets TTM	4.71%
Return on equity TTM	-50.46%
Profit margin	-10.99%
Book value	$8.957
Market capitalisation	USD$2.8 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Patterson Companies shares

There are currently 10.1 million Patterson Companies shares held short by investors – that's known as Patterson Companies's "short interest". This figure is 6.3% down from 10.8 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Patterson Companies shares can be evaluated.

Patterson Companies's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Patterson Companies's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Patterson Companies shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Patterson Companies shares traded daily (recently around 733087.1459695). Patterson Companies's SIR currently stands at 13.77. In other words for every 100,000 Patterson Companies shares traded daily on the market, roughly 13770 shares are currently held short.

However Patterson Companies's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Patterson Companies shares, or, against the total number of tradable Patterson Companies shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Patterson Companies's short interest could be expressed as 0.1% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Patterson Companies shares in existence, roughly 100 shares are currently held short) or 0.1697% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Patterson Companies shares, roughly 170 shares are currently held short).

A SIR above 10% would generally be considered pretty high, pointing to a potentially pessimistic outlook for the share price and a discouraging interest in betting against Patterson Companies.

Find out more about how you can short Patterson Companies stock.

Patterson Companies share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 64.2% of net profits

Recently Patterson Companies has paid out, on average, around 64.2% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.73% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Patterson Companies shareholders could enjoy a 3.73% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Patterson Companies's case, that would currently equate to about $1.04 per share.

Patterson Companies's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Patterson Companies's most recent dividend payout was on 30 October 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 15 October 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Patterson Companies's shares ever split?

Patterson Companies's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 25 October 2004. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Patterson Companies shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Patterson Companies shares which in turn could have impacted Patterson Companies's share price.

Patterson Companies share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Patterson Companies's shares have ranged in value from as little as $12.4344 up to $30.082. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Patterson Companies's is 1.6257. This would suggest that Patterson Companies's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Patterson Companies overview

Patterson Companies, Inc. distributes and sells dental and animal health products in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It operates through three segments; Dental, Animal Health, and Corporate segments. The Dental segment offers consumable products, including infection control, restorative materials, hand instruments, and sterilization products; basic and advanced technology dental equipment; technology solutions, such as practice management software and e-commerce solutions; patient education systems; and office forms and stationery. It also provides a range of related services comprising software and design services, maintenance and repair, and equipment financing. The Animal Health segment distributes pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, prescription and non-prescription diets, nutritionals, consumable supplies, equipment, and software, as well as value-added services. This segment also provides private label portfolio of products to veterinarians, producers, and retailers under the Aspen, First Companion, and Patterson Veterinary brands. The Corporate segment offers customer financing services; and sells other miscellaneous products. It serves dentists, laboratories, institutions, other healthcare professionals, veterinarians, other animal health professionals, production animal operators, and animal health product retailers. The company was formerly known as Patterson Dental Company and changed its name to Patterson Companies, Inc. in June 2004. Patterson Companies, Inc. was founded in 1877 and is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Patterson Companies is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 12.148% of Patterson Companies shares are held by insiders and 89.719% by institutions.

• How many people work for Patterson Companies?

  Latest data suggests 7,800 work at Patterson Companies.

• When does the fiscal year end for Patterson Companies?

  Patterson Companies's fiscal year ends in April.

• Where is Patterson Companies based?

  Patterson Companies's address is: 1031 Mendota Heights Road, Saint Paul, MN, United States, 55120

• What is Patterson Companies's ISIN number?

  Patterson Companies's international securities identification number is: US7033951036

• What is Patterson Companies's CUSIP number?

  Patterson Companies's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 703395103