Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) Cut to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

Separately, Barrington Research boosted their target price on shares of Perdoceo Education from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Perdoceo Education Stock Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ PRDO opened at $27.72 on Friday. Perdoceo Education has a twelve month low of $16.12 and a twelve month high of $29.47. The business’s fifty day moving average is $22.90 and its 200 day moving average is $22.59. The company has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.04.

Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.06. Perdoceo Education had a return on equity of 15.58% and a net margin of 20.42%. The firm had revenue of $169.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $164.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Perdoceo Education will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Perdoceo Education Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Perdoceo Education’s payout ratio is presently 26.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Perdoceo Education

In other news, Director Patrick W. Gross sold 3,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.74, for a total value of $90,916.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 69,635 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,862,039.90. This represents a 4.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP John Robert Kline sold 30,574 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.47, for a total transaction of $809,293.78. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 130,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,451,820.35. This trade represents a 18.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 40,450 shares of company stock worth $1,036,206. Insiders own 1.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Perdoceo Education

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Perdoceo Education by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,896,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,538,000 after acquiring an additional 45,259 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Perdoceo Education by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,069,173 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,580,000 after purchasing an additional 28,909 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Perdoceo Education by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,505,687 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,512,000 after purchasing an additional 107,918 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Perdoceo Education by 24.3% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,650,123 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,766,000 after buying an additional 518,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Perdoceo Education by 3.9% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,010,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,060,000 after buying an additional 75,293 shares in the last quarter. 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.