Patterson Companies Inc. (PDCO) filed Annual Report for the period ended 2010-04-24.

Patterson Companies Inc. has a market cap of $3.71 billion; its shares were traded at around $30.23 with a P/E ratio of 17 and P/S ratio of 1.2. The dividend yield of Patterson Companies Inc. stocks is 1.3%. Patterson Companies Inc. had an annual average earning growth of 17.4% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Patterson Companies Inc. the business predictability rank of 4-star.

PDCO is in the portfolios of Bill Frels of Mairs & Power Inc. , John Keeley of Keeley Fund Management, Tom Gayner of Markel Gayner Asset Management Corp, John Hussman of Hussman Economtrics Advisors, Inc., Chuck Royce of Royce& Associates, Jeremy Grantham of GMO LLC, Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors.

Highlight of Business Operations:

During fiscal 2008, the Company executed a series of transactions that effectively changed our capital structure, lowering our weighted average cost of capital by almost 100 basis points, and positioned the Company to increase returns to our shareholders. First, the Company repurchased approximately 18 million shares of its common stock on the open market and through an accelerated share repurchase agreement for approximately $636 million. A portion of the funding for the share repurchases came from debt issued in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, consisting of fixed-rate private placement notes totaling $450 million and a variable-rate term loan of $75 million. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010, the Company initiated a quarterly cash dividend of $0.10 per share. The Company currently expects to continue paying a quarterly cash dividend into the foreseeable future.

Net Sales. Fiscal 2010 consolidated sales were $3,237.4 million, an increase of 4.6% compared to $3,094.2 million in fiscal 2009. Acquisitions contributed 4.1% to sales growth, resulting mostly from acquisitions by the veterinary and rehabilitation units. Fluctuations in foreign currency translation rates contributed 0.4% to sales growth. During both fiscal 2010 and 2009, sales at each of our business units were adversely affected by the recession and slow economic recovery. The Company believes the weakness in the general economy will continue to affect our performance in fiscal 2011.

Sales of our consolidated dental supply unit were $2,167.5 million, a decrease of 0.3% from $2,174.4 million in fiscal 2009. Fluctuations in foreign currency rates related to our dental operations in Canada and the contribution from acquisitions had a favorable impact on fiscal 2010 sales of 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively. Sales of dental consumable supplies decreased 0.2% to $1,214.8 million. Beginning late in the first half of fiscal 2009 and continuing throughout fiscal 2010, the sales of consumables have been affected by reduced discretionary spending and high levels of unemployment resulting from the general economic conditions, particularly in the United States.

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