Select Medical (NYSE:SEM) Trading Up 8.8% Following Dividend Announcement

Select Medical Holdings Co. (NYSE:SEM) shares traded up 8.8% during mid-day trading on Friday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $31.32 and last traded at $30.96. 693,586 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 23% from the average session volume of 562,830 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.45.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. Select Medical’s payout ratio is 23.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on SEM shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Select Medical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $39.00 target price on shares of Select Medical in a research report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Select Medical has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.40.

Select Medical Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company’s fifty day moving average is $28.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.93.

Select Medical (NYSE:SEM) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The health services provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Select Medical had a return on equity of 18.45% and a net margin of 3.97%. The company’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.22 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Select Medical Holdings Co. will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Robert A. Ortenzio sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.90, for a total value of $1,495,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 6,689,668 shares in the company, valued at $200,021,073.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 19.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new stake in Select Medical during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Select Medical in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Select Medical in the first quarter valued at $47,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in Select Medical by 74.9% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 4,292 shares of the health services provider’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 1,838 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CI Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Select Medical in the 3rd quarter worth about $147,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.48% of the company’s stock.

Select Medical Company Profile

Select Medical Holdings Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates critical illness recovery hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, and occupational health centers in the United States. It operates in four segments: Critical Illness Recovery Hospital, Rehabilitation Hospital, Outpatient Rehabilitation, and Concentra.