Patterson Companies (PDCO) Beats On Q1 Earnings, Keeps View

Patterson Companies Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) reported first-quarter fiscal 2018 adjusted earnings of 44 cents per share from continuing operations, which outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 43 cents. The figure, however, came lower than the year-ago quarterly figure of 51 cents.

Net sales from continuing operations dipped 2.1% from the year-ago quarter to $1.30 billion missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.34 billion.

Quarter Details

Coming to the Animal Health platform (60% of total sales), sales increased almost 1.8% on a year-over-year basis to $776.1 million. Sales of Consumable grew 2.2% year over year. However, other services and products on this platform witnessed a 23.4% year-over-year decline in sales.

Patterson Companies’ Dental platform (40% of total sales) sales declined 6.5% year over year to $518.8 million approximately. Consumable sales at the Dental platform dropped 3.8% year over year to $320.2 million, while sales from other services and products decreased 0.6%. Sales from dental equipment and software dipped 15.3%.

Financial Condition

Cash and cash equivalents were $99.8 million as of Jul 29, 2017 compared with $95.0 million as of Apr 29, 2017. In the reported quarter, Patterson repurchased approximately 0.8 million shares for $37.5 million. The company also disbursed $25.2 million in cash dividends to shareholders in the first quarter.

Outlook

Patterson Companies affirmed its adjusted earnings in the range of $2.25-$2.40 per share for fiscal 2018. GAAP earnings are expected to be in the range of $1.90 to $2.05 per diluted share.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Patterson Companies currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

A few better-ranked stocks in the broader medical sector are Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE:EW) , IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) and Cogentix Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:CGNT) . Edwards Lifesciences sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while IDEXX Laboratories and Cogentix Medical carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Edwards Lifesciences delivered an average earnings beat of 10.8% over the trailing four quarters.

Cogentix Medical delivered a positive earnings surprise of 200% in the last reported quarter.

IDEXX Laboratories delivered an average earnings beat of 9.3% over the trailing four quarters.

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