BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 1.37% to 6.66 million shares with purchase of 90322.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 15.49% valued currently at $336.06 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 82579.0 to 4.87 million shares. And Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC has lifted its position by 2.13% or 37038.0 shares – to 1.78 million shares.
With over 0.25 million Progress Software Corporation (PRGS) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $53.76 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $13.44 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 20.46% and its price on 01/13/23 gained nearly 0.43%. Currently, there are 43.21M common shares owned by the public and among those 42.28M shares have been available to trade.
Will You Miss Out On This Growth Stock Boom?
A new megatrend in the fintech market is well underway. Mobile payments are projected to boom into a massive $12 trillion market by 2028. According to Motley Fool this growth stock could "deliver huge returns." Not only in the immediate future but also over the next decade. Especially since the man behind this company is a serial entrepreneur who has been wildly successful over the years.
And this is just one of our
5 Best Growth Stocks To Own For 2023.
Sponsored
An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 7 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for PRGS have a consensus price objective of $55.29. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $70.00 and a low of $45.00. The average price target is 2.77% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -19.47% over that period. But an upside of 23.2% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $56.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 196 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 87 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 285,389 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 109 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 231,345 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Progress Software Corporation are iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF owns 3.18 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $160.49 million. The company sold 2152.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 7.40% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund bought 2992.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 1.12 million shares at a value of $56.65 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.61% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) opened at $53.32, down -$0.21 from a prior closing price of $53.53. However, the script later moved the day high at 53.87, up 0.43%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 3.27% and 15.76% over the past three months. PRGS shares are trading 6.56% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 14.46% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $40.33 and touched a high of $54.23 over the same period. PRGS has an average intraday trading volume of 245.83K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 5.26%, 4.40%, and 11.93% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) 43.21M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 46.45%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 59.05% and 21.60% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $2.30B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.02. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 27.65, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.94. The company has a PEG of 13.83 and a Quick Ratio of 1.30 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.69. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.88% over the week and 2.01% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Progress Software Corporation (PRGS) will achieve an EPS of $1.09 for the current quarter, $1.04 for the next quarter and $4.33 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.08 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.1. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.92 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -0.10%, and 6.25% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 2.00% over the next five years, compared to 28.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 7 brokerage firm advisors rate Progress Software Corporation (PRGS) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.70. Specifically, 5 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 7 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the PRGS, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Jefferies stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on September 09, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $52. Guggenheim coverage for the Progress Software Corporation (PRGS) stock in a research note released on August 12, 2022 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $60. JP Morgan was of a view on October 22, 2021 that the stock is Overweight, while Citigroup gave the stock Neutral rating on August 06, 2021, issuing a price target of $48. Oppenheimer on their part issued Outperform rating on July 15, 2021.
