Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday.

Separately, Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 price target on shares of Perdoceo Education in a research report on Friday, February 7th.

Perdoceo Education Stock Performance

Shares of PRDO opened at $28.30 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.60. Perdoceo Education has a 52-week low of $16.12 and a 52-week high of $29.47.

Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the company earned $0.64 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Perdoceo Education will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Perdoceo Education Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Saturday, March 1st will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.84%. Perdoceo Education’s payout ratio is 26.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Patrick W. Gross sold 3,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.74, for a total value of $90,916.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 69,635 shares in the company, valued at $1,862,039.90. This trade represents a 4.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Todd S. Nelson sold 12,472 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.29, for a total value of $327,888.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 615,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,186,674.13. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 28,020 shares of company stock worth $732,102. 1.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PRDO. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new position in Perdoceo Education during the third quarter valued at $9,374,000. Boston Partners raised its stake in Perdoceo Education by 41.1% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,209,899 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,379,000 after buying an additional 352,470 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Perdoceo Education by 27.5% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 742,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,650,000 after buying an additional 160,162 shares during the last quarter. Kennondale Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Perdoceo Education during the fourth quarter valued at $2,558,000. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake in Perdoceo Education by 353.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 110,622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,460,000 after buying an additional 86,227 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.46% of the company’s stock.

Perdoceo Education Company Profile

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.