Stock to Watch: Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO)

The shares of Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) currently has mean rating of 2.73 while 1 analysts have recommended the shares as “BUY”, 2 recommended as “OUTPERFORM” and 7 recommended as “HOLD”. The rating score is on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 stands for strong buy and 5 stands for sell.

The company’s mean estimate for sales for the current quarter ending Jul-16 is 1.35 billion by 9 analysts. The means estimate of sales for the year ending April-16 is 5.78 billion by 10 analysts.

The mean price target for the shares of Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) is at 51.21 while the highest price target suggested by the analysts is 65.00 and low price target is 41.00. The mean price target is calculated keeping in view the consensus of 7 brokerage firms.

The average estimate of EPS for the current fiscal quarter for Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) stands at 0.54 while the EPS for the current year is fixed at 2.66 by 11 analysts.

The next one year’s EPS estimate is set at 2.95 by 8 analysts while a year ago the analysts suggested the company’s EPS at 2.66. The analysts also projected the company’s long-term growth at 10.00% for the upcoming five years.

In its latest quarter ended on 30^th April 2016, Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) reported earnings of $0.77. The posted earnings topped the analyst’s consensus by $0.02 with the surprise factor of 2.70%. In the matter of earnings surprises, the term “Cockroach Effect” is often implied. Cockroach Effect is a market theory that suggests that when a company reveals bad news to the public, there may be many more related negative events that have yet to be revealed. In the case of earnings surprises, if a company is suggesting a negative earnings surprise it means there are more to come.

Patterson Companies, Inc. distributes dental, veterinary, and rehabilitation supplies. Its Dental Supply segment offers consumable dental supplies; impression and restorative materials; hand pieces; hand instruments; sterilization products; anesthetics; infection control products; paper, cotton, and other disposable products; and toothbrushes and dental accessories. This segment also provides printed office products, office filing supplies, and practice management systems; and radiography equipment, dental chairs and hand piece control units, diagnostic equipment, sterilizers, dental lights and compressors, chair-side restoration systems, digital imaging products, and inter-oral cameras. In addition, it develops and markets software for scheduling, billing, charting, and capturing/storing/retrieving digital images; and provides hardware and networking solutions, patient education products and services, software services, dental office layout and design, and equipment financing, as well as equipment installation, repair, and maintenance services. The company’s Veterinary Supply segment offers pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, pet foods, nutritional products, and consumable supplies, as well as veterinary equipment and software; and develops and markets practice management software, client education software, and Web-based client communication portal. Its Rehabilitation Supply segment offers distributed and self-manufactured rehabilitation medical supplies and assistive products to acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, rehabilitation clinics, dealers, and schools. The company serves North American dental supply; U.S. and U.K. veterinarian supply; and the worldwide rehabilitation and assistive products supply markets. 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 based in St. Paul, Minnesota.