Patterson Companies Shares Fall 4% (PDCO)

Shares of Patterson Companies Inc. PDCO are currently down 4.35% at $25.50 per share during Thursday afternoon trading. Today's trading range for shares of Patterson Companies Inc has been between $24.88 and $26.82 per share. The consensus price target of analysts covering the company's stock is $34.92 per share. Volume of 2.6 million shares is already far above the daily average volume of 935,000 shares. Patterson Companies Inc. (PDCO) released financial results on Thursday morning that beat Wall Street earnings estimates but failed to meet revenue expectations. Patterson Companies Inc reported 1st quarter earnings of 45 cents per share, on revenue of $849.8 million. A poll of analysts conducted by Thomson Reuters showed an average Wall Street estimate of expected earnings of 44 cents per share, on revenue of $855.14 million. President and chief executive officer Scott P. Anderson said, “We are generally pleased with Patterson’s first quarter results, considering the ongoing effect of sluggish economic conditions within our served markets. Within Patterson Dental, we were encouraged by the strong sales growth of basic dental equipment, reflecting our ability to capture a significant share of the equipment business that has been deferred for the past two years. We believe this rebound in basic equipment sales is an indication that the dental market is starting to gradually strengthen. Sales of cone beam and panoramic imaging systems were robust. The sales performance of our CEREC line reflected the strong comparable level in last year’s first quarter, due to the high level of interest in our initial trade-up program following the introduction of the CEREC AC® early in calendar 2009. A similar CEREC trade-up program has been running during this year’s first quarter and will end later this month. For the full year, we continue to believe that CEREC sales should increase by at least 10%, and we are committing substantial marketing resources to accomplish this goal.” Anderson also said, “Our expectations for fiscal 2011 have not changed from our previous guidance, and we are maintaining our earnings forecast of $1.89 to $1.99 per diluted share.” Read more from Benzinga's Company news.