Premier, Inc. (PINC) To Go Ex-Dividend on August 30th

Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 8th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Sunday, September 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.21 per share on Sunday, September 15th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th.

Premier has increased its dividend by an average of 30.3% annually over the last three years. Premier has a payout ratio of 63.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Premier to earn $2.00 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 42.0%.

Premier Stock Performance

Shares of Premier stock opened at $19.79 on Wednesday. Premier has a one year low of $17.95 and a one year high of $24.27. The company has a market cap of $2.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a PEG ratio of 6.62 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.93. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $19.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.15.

Premier (NASDAQ:PINC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 20th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $350.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $308.88 million. Premier had a return on equity of 11.71% and a net margin of 6.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.70 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Premier will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Premier news, General Counsel David L. Klatsky sold 13,339 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.55, for a total transaction of $247,438.45. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 92,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,706,618.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Craig S. Mckasson sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total transaction of $600,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 288,110 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,762,200. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel David L. Klatsky sold 13,339 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.55, for a total value of $247,438.45. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 92,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,706,618.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 113,429 shares of company stock valued at $2,245,068 in the last quarter. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PINC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $27.00 to $21.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on Premier from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Premier from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. StockNews.com upgraded Premier from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, Benchmark cut Premier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.19.

Premier Company Profile

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.