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

Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 24th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be given a dividend of 0.21 per share on Sunday, December 15th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

Premier has raised its dividend by an average of 30.3% annually over the last three years. Premier has a payout ratio of 65.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Premier to earn $1.18 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 71.2%.

Premier Trading Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:PINC opened at $22.95 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a PEG ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 0.40. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $20.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.90. Premier has a 1-year low of $17.95 and a 1-year high of $23.56.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $248.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $232.85 million. Premier had a return on equity of 10.74% and a net margin of 11.41%. Premier’s revenue was down 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Premier will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Premier

In other Premier news, insider Andy Brailo sold 4,390 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.51, for a total value of $90,038.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 104,410 shares in the company, valued at $2,141,449.10. This trade represents a 4.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 shares were sold at an average price of $23.16, for a total value of $403,331.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 520,728 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,060,060.48. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 141,537 shares of company stock worth $2,915,552 over the last ninety days. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on PINC. StockNews.com lowered Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on Premier from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays increased their price objective on Premier from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Benchmark downgraded Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Premier from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 9th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.36.

About Premier

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.