StockNews.com Upgrades U.S. Physical Therapy (NYSE:USPH) to “Hold”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of U.S. Physical Therapy (NYSE:USPH) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on USPH. Citizens Jmp raised shares of U.S. Physical Therapy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Bank of America upgraded shares of U.S. Physical Therapy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $115.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Barrington Research lowered their target price on U.S. Physical Therapy from $108.00 to $98.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, JMP Securities began coverage on U.S. Physical Therapy in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $113.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.00.

U.S. Physical Therapy Stock Performance

NYSE:USPH opened at $69.27 on Wednesday. U.S. Physical Therapy has a twelve month low of $62.77 and a twelve month high of $108.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.69, a PEG ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.31.

U.S. Physical Therapy (NYSE:USPH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.69 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $180.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.10 million. U.S. Physical Therapy had a return on equity of 8.11% and a net margin of 3.54%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that U.S. Physical Therapy will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

U.S. Physical Therapy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a boost from U.S. Physical Therapy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. U.S. Physical Therapy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 97.83%.

Insider Transactions at U.S. Physical Therapy

In other U.S. Physical Therapy news, COO Graham D. Reeve sold 1,730 shares of U.S. Physical Therapy stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.11, for a total value of $142,050.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $588,564.48. The trade was a 19.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of USPH. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in U.S. Physical Therapy by 13.6% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 4,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $399,000 after acquiring an additional 566 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in U.S. Physical Therapy by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 57,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,838,000 after buying an additional 6,154 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in U.S. Physical Therapy by 17.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 667,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,522,000 after buying an additional 99,244 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in U.S. Physical Therapy by 12.7% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 11,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after buying an additional 1,329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in U.S. Physical Therapy in the third quarter valued at $573,000.

U.S. Physical Therapy Company Profile

U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc operates outpatient physical therapy clinics. The company operates through Physical Therapy Operations and Industrial Injury Prevention Services segments. The company provides pre-and post-operative care and treatment for orthopedic-related disorders, sports-related injuries, preventative care, rehabilitation of injured workers, and neurological-related injuries.