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

Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Saturday, March 1st will be given a dividend of 0.21 per share on Saturday, March 15th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.77%.

Premier has raised its dividend payment by an average of 2.5% annually over the last three years. Premier has a payout ratio of 63.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Premier to earn $1.19 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 70.6%.

Premier Price Performance

NASDAQ PINC traded up $0.26 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $22.28. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 642,328 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,294,588. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.38 and a beta of 0.43. The company’s 50-day moving average is $21.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $20.73. Premier has a 1-year low of $17.95 and a 1-year high of $23.56.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.09. Premier had a return on equity of 10.74% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $248.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $232.85 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Premier will post 1.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Leigh Anderson sold 20,000 shares of Premier stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.88, for a total transaction of $437,600.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 111,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,444,149.16. The trade was a 15.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Alkire sold 17,415 shares of the company’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 in the company, valued at $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 59,425 shares of company stock worth $1,320,242 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on PINC. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Premier from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on Premier from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays raised their target price on Premier from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, Premier has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.