Primoris Services (NASDAQ:PRIM) Reaches New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Primoris Services Co. (NASDAQ:PRIM)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $90.86 and last traded at $87.90, with a volume of 645313 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $89.03.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on PRIM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Primoris Services in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $71.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Primoris Services in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $96.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Primoris Services from $51.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Primoris Services from $60.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Primoris Services from $75.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $88.67.

Primoris Services Trading Down 1.7 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $4.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.61 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $81.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.29.

Primoris Services (NASDAQ:PRIM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The construction company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.20. Primoris Services had a net margin of 2.68% and a return on equity of 15.23%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Primoris Services Co. will post 3.26 EPS for the current year.

Primoris Services Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This is a positive change from Primoris Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.37%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Primoris Services’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.60%.

Insider Activity at Primoris Services

In other news, Director David Lee King sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.98, for a total value of $167,960.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,818 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,000,235.64. This represents a 7.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Thomas Edward Mccormick sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.28, for a total transaction of $1,219,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,390 shares in the company, valued at $4,989,779.20. This represents a 19.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,018 shares of company stock worth $1,854,974 in the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Primoris Services

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Primoris Services by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,218,911 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $70,810,000 after buying an additional 15,070 shares during the period. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC grew its position in Primoris Services by 80.6% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC now owns 839,853 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $48,779,000 after purchasing an additional 374,926 shares during the last quarter. Yaupon Capital Management LP grew its position in Primoris Services by 28.4% during the 3rd quarter. Yaupon Capital Management LP now owns 699,817 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $40,645,000 after purchasing an additional 154,627 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Primoris Services by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 607,010 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $35,255,000 after purchasing an additional 91,235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in Primoris Services during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,089,000. 91.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Primoris Services Company Profile

Primoris Services Corporation, a specialty contractor company, provides a range of specialty construction, fabrication, maintenance, replacement, and engineering services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Utilities and Energy/Renewables segments. The Utilities segment offers installation and maintenance services for new and existing natural gas distribution systems, electric utility distribution and transmission systems, and communications systems.