Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Stake in U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. (NYSE:USPH)

Legal & General Group Plc cut its holdings in U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. (NYSE:USPH) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,909 shares of the company’s stock after selling 363 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.28% of U.S. Physical Therapy worth $3,806,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of U.S. Physical Therapy by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,084,197 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,179,000 after acquiring an additional 6,393 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in U.S. Physical Therapy by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 839,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,459,000 after purchasing an additional 72,715 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of U.S. Physical Therapy by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 343,073 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,040,000 after purchasing an additional 4,477 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of U.S. Physical Therapy by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 299,791 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,594,000 after purchasing an additional 50,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its holdings in shares of U.S. Physical Therapy by 135.4% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 260,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,076,000 after purchasing an additional 149,622 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered U.S. Physical Therapy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Barrington Research cut their target price on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy from $108.00 to $98.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $113.00 price objective on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of U.S. Physical Therapy in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.00.

Insider Transactions at U.S. Physical Therapy

In other U.S. Physical Therapy news, COO Graham D. Reeve sold 1,730 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.11, for a total transaction of $142,050.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,168 shares in the company, valued at $588,564.48. This represents a 19.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

U.S. Physical Therapy Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of USPH opened at $67.76 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $75.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.59. The company has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.09, a P/E/G 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. U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $62.77 and a twelve month high of $108.14.

U.S. Physical Therapy (NYSE:USPH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.69 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $180.45 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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, analysts expect that U.S. Physical Therapy, Inc. will post 2.67 EPS for the current year.

U.S. Physical Therapy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. U.S. Physical Therapy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 97.83%.

U.S. Physical Therapy 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.