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How to buy Patterson Companies stock
Own Patterson Companies stock in just a few minutes.
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$5.6 billion.
How to buy shares in Patterson Companies
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Decide on how many to buy. 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.
- 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.
What's in this guide?
- PDCO shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is PDCO stock a buy or sell?
- Stock performance over time
- Can I short PDCO shares?
- Are PDCO shares over-valued?
- Patterson Companies's financials
- How volatile are PDCO shares?
- Does Patterson Companies pay a dividend?
- Have PDCO shares ever split?
- Other common questions
Patterson Companies share price
Use our graph to track the performance of PDCO stocks over time.Patterson Companies shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-04-09.
| 52-week range | USD$13.921 - USD$36.88 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$31.7379 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$29.7711 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$33.5 |
| PE ratio | 36.56 |
| Dividend yield | USD$1.04 (3.28%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$0.498 |
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The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
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.
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.
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 1.4348. 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$319.7 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$5.6 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 4.28% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$1.2 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 4.73% |
| Return on equity TTM | -40.07% |
| Profit margin | -8.54% |
| Book value | $9.745 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$3.1 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Patterson Companies shares
There are currently 7.3 million Patterson Companies shares held short by investors – that's known as Patterson Companies's "short interest". This figure is 2.8% up from 7.1 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 817196.05855856). Patterson Companies's SIR currently stands at 8.88. In other words for every 100,000 Patterson Companies shares traded daily on the market, roughly 8880 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 0.08% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Patterson Companies shares in existence, roughly 80 shares are currently held short) or 0.1214% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Patterson Companies shares, roughly 121 shares are currently held short).
A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Patterson Companies.
Find out more about how you can short Patterson Companies stock.
Patterson Companies share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 52.79% of net profits
Recently Patterson Companies has paid out, on average, around 52.79% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.28% 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 3.28% 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 29 April 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 14 April 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have Patterson Companies's shares ever split?
Patterson Companies's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 24 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 $13.921 up to $36.88. 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 1.6106. 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.
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