U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. to Issue Dividend of $0.45 (NYSE:USPH)

U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. (NYSE:USPH) declared a dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, NASDAQ Dividends reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share on Friday, April 11th. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th.

U.S. Physical Therapy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.4% annually over the last three years. U.S. Physical Therapy has a dividend payout ratio of 55.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect U.S. Physical Therapy to earn $2.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 60.1%.

U.S. Physical Therapy Trading Down 6.2 %

Shares of NYSE:USPH opened at $82.25 on Friday. U.S. Physical Therapy has a 52-week low of $76.18 and a 52-week high of $113.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a current ratio of 1.78. The company has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $87.67.

U.S. Physical Therapy (NYSE:USPH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by ($0.04). U.S. Physical Therapy had a net margin of 3.54% and a return on equity of 8.11%. The business had revenue of $180.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.10 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that U.S. Physical Therapy will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other U.S. Physical Therapy news, CFO Carey P. Hendrickson sold 516 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.25, for a total transaction of $49,665.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,469 shares in the company, valued at $1,970,141.25. This represents a 2.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on USPH shares. Bank of America raised shares of U.S. Physical Therapy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy in a report on Thursday. Citizens Jmp raised shares of U.S. Physical Therapy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Barrington Research cut their price objective on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy from $108.00 to $98.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on U.S. Physical Therapy from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, U.S. Physical Therapy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $111.50.

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.