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How to buy PRA Health Sciences stock
Own PRA Health Sciences stock in just a few minutes.
Fact checked
PRA Health Sciences, Inc is a diagnostics & research business based in the US. PRA Health Sciences shares (PRAH) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. PRA Health Sciences employs 18,100 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$3.2 billion.
How to buy shares in PRA Health Sciences
- 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 PRA Health Sciences. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: PRAH. 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 PRA Health Sciences 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 PRA Health Sciences, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of PRA Health Sciences. 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?
PRA Health Sciences share price
Use our graph to track the performance of PRAH stocks over time.PRA Health Sciences shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-03-03.
| 52-week range | USD$58.67 - USD$150.82 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$129.9918 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$114.7253 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$147.4 |
| PE ratio | 47.25 |
| Dividend yield | N/A (0%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$3.04 |
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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 PRA Health Sciences 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 PRA Health Sciences under- or over-valued?
Valuing PRA Health Sciences stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of PRA Health Sciences's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
PRA Health Sciences's P/E ratio
PRA Health Sciences's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 47x. In other words, PRA Health Sciences shares trade at around 47x 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.
PRA Health Sciences's PEG ratio
PRA Health Sciences's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.8997. 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 PRA Health Sciences's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
PRA Health Sciences's EBITDA
PRA Health Sciences's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$415.6 million.
The EBITDA is a measure of a PRA Health Sciences's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
PRA Health Sciences financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$3.2 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 8.92% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$1.5 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 4.6% |
| Return on equity TTM | 15.34% |
| Profit margin | 6.19% |
| Book value | $22.919 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$9.3 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting PRA Health Sciences shares
There are currently 748,886 PRA Health Sciences shares held short by investors – that's known as PRA Health Sciences's "short interest". This figure is 5.5% down from 792,152 last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting PRA Health Sciences shares can be evaluated.
PRA Health Sciences's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
PRA Health Sciences's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of PRA Health Sciences shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of PRA Health Sciences shares traded daily (recently around 275325.73529412). PRA Health Sciences's SIR currently stands at 2.72. In other words for every 100,000 PRA Health Sciences shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2720 shares are currently held short.
However PRA Health Sciences's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of PRA Health Sciences shares, or, against the total number of tradable PRA Health Sciences shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case PRA Health Sciences's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 PRA Health Sciences shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.017% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable PRA Health Sciences shares, roughly 17 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against PRA Health Sciences.
Find out more about how you can short PRA Health Sciences stock.
PRA Health Sciences share dividends
We're not expecting PRA Health Sciences to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.
PRA Health Sciences share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, PRA Health Sciences's shares have ranged in value from as little as $58.67 up to $150.82. 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 PRA Health Sciences's is 1.2508. This would suggest that PRA Health Sciences's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
PRA Health Sciences overview
PRA Health Sciences, Inc., a contract research organization, provides outsourced clinical development and data solution services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Clinical Research and Data Solutions. The Clinical Research segment offers product registration services, including clinical trial management, project management, regulatory affairs, therapeutic expertise, clinical operations, data and programming, safety and risk management, biostatistics and medical writing, quality assurance, and late phase services. It also provides strategic solutions, such as embedded, functional services provider, staff augmentation, and custom-built development solutions, as well as commercialization services; and early development services for Phase I and Phase IIa studies, as well as bioanalytical analysis. The Data Solutions segment offers data, analytics, technology, and consulting solutions to the life sciences market. Its services include market intelligence services, such as targeting and compensation, and pharmaceutical audit suite services; consulting and services comprising brand analytics, managed markets, commercial effectiveness, and scientific studies/clinical hubs; and technology-enabled products and services that clients to access and analyze Symphony Health and integrated third-party data. PRA Health Sciences, Inc. conducts clinical trials in the areas of pharmaceutical development, including oncology, immunology, central nervous system, inflammation, respiratory, cardiometabolic, and infectious diseases. The company has a partnership with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to launch a clinical trial for developing treatments for children with relapsed acute leukemia. The company was formerly known as PRA Global Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to PRA Health Sciences, Inc. in July 2014. PRA Health Sciences, Inc. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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