Perdoceo Education Co. (NASDAQ:PRDO) to Issue $0.13 Quarterly Dividend

Perdoceo Education Co. (NASDAQ:PRDO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a dividend of 0.13 per share on Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th.

Perdoceo Education has a dividend payout ratio of 21.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Perdoceo Education to earn $2.60 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.0%.

Perdoceo Education Trading Up 3.2%

Shares of PRDO stock opened at $32.03 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a PE ratio of 14.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.79. Perdoceo Education has a 52-week low of $20.23 and a 52-week high of $32.76. The business’s fifty day moving average is $27.41 and its 200 day moving average is $27.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 5.45 and a current ratio of 4.84.

Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.04. Perdoceo Education had a return on equity of 16.85% and a net margin of 21.66%. The business had revenue of $213.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.97 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 26.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Perdoceo Education will post 2.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Perdoceo Education from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Barrington Research increased their price target on shares of Perdoceo Education from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Perdoceo Education news, SVP Elise Baskel sold 17,818 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.16, for a total value of $430,482.88. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 93,354 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,255,432.64. This represents a 16.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ashish R. Ghia sold 6,236 shares of Perdoceo Education stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $155,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 252,130 shares in the company, valued at $6,303,250. This trade represents a 2.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 127,820 shares of company stock valued at $3,296,615 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.11% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Perdoceo Education

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in Perdoceo Education by 19.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 10,663 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,000 after purchasing an additional 1,717 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Perdoceo Education by 2.2% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 56,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,417,000 after buying an additional 1,235 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Perdoceo Education by 117.5% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 267,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,731,000 after buying an additional 144,395 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Perdoceo Education by 49.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,547,405 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,964,000 after buying an additional 513,599 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.46% of the company’s stock.

About Perdoceo Education

Perdoceo Education Corporation provides postsecondary education through online, campus-based, and blended learning programs in the United States. It operates in two segments, Colorado Technical University and The American InterContinental University System. The Colorado Technical University segment offers academic programs, such as business and management, nursing, healthcare management, computer science, engineering, information systems and technology, project management, cybersecurity, and criminal justice.