Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Increases Position in Primerica, Inc. (NYSE:PRI)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in shares of Primerica, Inc. (NYSE:PRI) by 75.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,383 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,882 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Primerica were worth $1,190,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Primerica by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 6,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,613,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Primerica by 359,742.9% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 25,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,679,000 after purchasing an additional 25,182 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Primerica during the third quarter worth $215,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in Primerica by 78.5% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $512,000 after purchasing an additional 862 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Primerica in the third quarter valued at $208,000. 90.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on PRI shares. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Primerica in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $311.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Primerica from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Primerica from $313.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Primerica from $315.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on Primerica from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $311.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Glenn J. Williams sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.74, for a total transaction of $845,220.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 33,322 shares in the company, valued at $9,388,140.28. This represents a 8.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Primerica Stock Performance

Shares of PRI opened at $278.45 on Thursday. Primerica, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $184.76 and a fifty-two week high of $307.91. The company has a market capitalization of $9.29 billion, a PE ratio of 20.25 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $281.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $277.65.

Primerica (NYSE:PRI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported $5.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.81 by $0.22. Primerica had a return on equity of 31.11% and a net margin of 15.14%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Primerica, Inc. will post 20.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Primerica Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $1.04 per share. This is a positive change from Primerica’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $4.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. Primerica’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.25%.

Primerica announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, November 14th that permits the company to buyback $450.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 4.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Primerica Company Profile

Primerica, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services to middle-income households in the United States and Canada. The company operates in four segments: Term Life Insurance; Investment and Savings Products; Senior Health; and Corporate and Other Distributed Products.