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

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

Separately, Barrington Research reiterated an outperform rating and set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Perdoceo Education in a report on Monday, April 15th.

Perdoceo Education Stock Up 1.1 %

PRDO opened at $18.62 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $17.53 and a 200-day moving average of $17.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.54, a PEG ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.96. Perdoceo Education has a 12-month low of $11.50 and a 12-month high of $19.62.

Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. Perdoceo Education had a return on equity of 17.63% and a net margin of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $147.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $146.20 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Perdoceo Education will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Perdoceo Education Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Perdoceo Education’s payout ratio is 20.18%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Perdoceo Education news, CEO Todd S. Nelson sold 9,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.50, for a total transaction of $175,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 685,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,674,313. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Todd S. Nelson sold 9,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.50, for a total value of $175,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 685,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,674,313. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Todd S. Nelson sold 16,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.23, for a total value of $275,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 713,367 shares in the company, valued at $12,291,313.41. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 89,500 shares of company stock valued at $1,597,350 over the last three months. 1.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Perdoceo Education

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PRDO. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its position in Perdoceo Education by 9.9% during the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 6,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $110,000 after buying an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its position in Perdoceo Education by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 36,911 shares of the company’s stock worth $648,000 after buying an additional 682 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Perdoceo Education by 4.7% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 17,757 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,000 after buying an additional 804 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Perdoceo Education by 5.3% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 16,077 shares of the company’s stock worth $275,000 after buying an additional 811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its position in Perdoceo Education by 6.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 23,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $406,000 after buying an additional 1,342 shares in the last quarter. 93.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.