Bailard Inc. Acquires New Position in Perdoceo Education Co. (NASDAQ:PRDO)

Bailard Inc. bought a new position in shares of Perdoceo Education Co. (NASDAQ:PRDO) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 8,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Perdoceo Education by 227.1% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,315 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 913 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Perdoceo Education during the 4th quarter worth about $60,000. KBC Group NV raised its position in Perdoceo Education by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,696 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in shares of Perdoceo Education by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,000 after buying an additional 1,355 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Perdoceo Education during the third quarter worth about $114,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Perdoceo Education

In other Perdoceo Education news, CEO Todd S. Nelson sold 12,472 shares of Perdoceo Education stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.29, for a total transaction of $327,888.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 615,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,186,674.13. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP John Robert Kline sold 12,148 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.79, for a total value of $313,296.92. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 130,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,363,144.95. The trade was a 8.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PRDO. StockNews.com raised shares of Perdoceo Education from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barrington Research raised their price objective on shares of Perdoceo Education from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th.

Perdoceo Education Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ:PRDO opened at $25.66 on Thursday. Perdoceo Education Co. has a 1 year low of $16.56 and a 1 year high of $29.84. The stock has a market cap of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 5.45 and a current ratio of 4.84. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.95.

Perdoceo Education (NASDAQ:PRDO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $176.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $160.12 million. Perdoceo Education had a return on equity of 16.85% and a net margin of 21.66%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Perdoceo Education Co. will post 2.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Perdoceo Education Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Saturday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.03%. Perdoceo Education’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.64%.

About Perdoceo Education

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.