Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

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

Separately, Barrington Research upped their target price on shares of Perdoceo Education from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th.

Perdoceo Education Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of PRDO stock opened at $27.53 on Friday. Perdoceo Education has a 12-month low of $16.12 and a 12-month high of $29.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $23.96 and a 200-day moving average of $22.86.

Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $169.83 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $164.60 million. Perdoceo Education had a net margin of 20.42% and a return on equity of 15.58%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. Research analysts expect that Perdoceo Education will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Perdoceo Education Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Perdoceo Education’s payout ratio is 26.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Perdoceo Education

In other Perdoceo Education news, SVP John Robert Kline sold 30,574 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.47, for a total value of $809,293.78. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 130,405 shares in the company, valued at $3,451,820.35. This trade represents a 18.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Patrick W. Gross sold 3,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.74, for a total transaction of $90,916.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 69,635 shares in the company, valued at $1,862,039.90. This represents a 4.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Perdoceo Education

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Perdoceo Education by 13.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 18,680 shares of the company’s stock valued at $329,000 after acquiring an additional 2,189 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Perdoceo Education during the second quarter valued at $954,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Perdoceo Education during the second quarter valued at $3,634,000. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Perdoceo Education by 650.6% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 1,633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Perdoceo Education by 1.5% during the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 33,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $707,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.