Premier, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.21 (NASDAQ:PINC)

Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Saturday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.21 per share on Saturday, March 15th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.77%.

Premier has raised its dividend by an average of 2.5% annually over the last three years. Premier has a payout ratio of 63.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Premier to earn $1.19 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 70.6%.

Premier Stock Up 1.2 %

PINC stock traded up $0.26 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $22.28. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 642,328 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,294,588. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.38 and a beta of 0.43. Premier has a 52-week low of $17.95 and a 52-week high of $23.56.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.09. Premier had a return on equity of 10.74% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $248.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $232.85 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. Premier’s revenue was down 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Premier will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PINC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Premier from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Premier from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Premier from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.36.

Insider Activity at Premier

In other news, Director Helen M. Boudreau sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.42, for a total value of $53,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 20,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $442,708.56. The trade was a 10.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Alkire sold 17,415 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.16, for a total value of $403,331.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 520,728 shares in the company, valued at $12,060,060.48. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 59,425 shares of company stock valued at $1,320,242 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Premier Company Profile

Premier, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a healthcare improvement company in the United States. It operates in two segments, Supply Chain Services and Performance Services. The Supply Chain Services segment offers its members with an access to a range of products and services, including medical and surgical products, pharmaceuticals, laboratory supplies, capital equipment, information technology, facilities and construction, and food and nutritional products, as well as purchased services, such as clinical engineering and workforce solutions.