U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. (NYSE:USPH) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. (NYSE:USPH) have earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the six research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $109.00.

USPH has been the subject of several research reports. Wall Street Zen raised U.S. Physical Therapy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $113.00 target price on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $98.00 target price on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st.

Insider Activity at U.S. Physical Therapy

In other news, Director Nancy Ham sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.01, for a total transaction of $31,204.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,357.94. This represents a 13.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On U.S. Physical Therapy

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in U.S. Physical Therapy by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,084,197 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,179,000 after acquiring an additional 6,393 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in U.S. Physical Therapy by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 888,735 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,499,000 after acquiring an additional 72,463 shares in the last quarter. Southernsun Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in U.S. Physical Therapy by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Southernsun Asset Management LLC now owns 571,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,725,000 after acquiring an additional 24,698 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in U.S. Physical Therapy by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 426,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,818,000 after acquiring an additional 7,890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its position in U.S. Physical Therapy by 32.6% in the 1st quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 345,003 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,964,000 after purchasing an additional 84,878 shares during the last quarter.

U.S. Physical Therapy Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of U.S. Physical Therapy stock opened at $75.12 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $76.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.80. U.S. Physical Therapy has a fifty-two week low of $62.77 and a fifty-two week high of $101.19. The firm has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

U.S. Physical Therapy (NYSE:USPH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.02. U.S. Physical Therapy had a return on equity of 7.89% and a net margin of 4.57%. The business had revenue of $183.79 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.78 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that U.S. Physical Therapy will post 2.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

U.S. Physical Therapy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 23rd. U.S. Physical Therapy’s dividend payout ratio is 82.57%.

About U.S. Physical Therapy

U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc operates outpatient physical therapy clinics. The company operates through Physical Therapy Operations and Industrial Injury Prevention Services segments. The company provides pre-and post-operative care and treatment for orthopedic-related disorders, sports-related injuries, preventative care, rehabilitation of injured workers, and neurological-related injuries.