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

Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 24th, Zacks reports. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

Premier has raised its dividend by an average of 30.3% per year over the last three years. Premier has a payout ratio of 69.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Premier to earn $0.99 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 84.8%.

Premier Trading Down 0.5 %

PINC stock traded down $0.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $19.76. 510,130 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,372,808. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.98 billion, a PE ratio of 19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.43 and a beta of 0.41. Premier has a 1-year low of $17.95 and a 1-year high of $23.01.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 20th. The company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.25. Premier had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 11.69%. The company had revenue of $350.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $308.88 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.70 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Premier will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Premier news, CEO Michael J. Alkire sold 18,771 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.12, for a total transaction of $396,443.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 543,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,487,738.24. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Michael J. Alkire sold 18,771 shares of Premier stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.12, for a total transaction of $396,443.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 543,927 shares in the company, valued at $11,487,738.24. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Andy Brailo sold 4,390 shares of Premier stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.51, for a total transaction of $90,038.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 104,410 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,141,449.10. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 154,212 shares of company stock worth $3,134,991 in the last three months. 0.85% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PINC. StockNews.com downgraded Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Premier from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Premier from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Benchmark cut Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on shares of Premier from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.81.

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.