Royce & Associates LP recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ:SPNS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 1,063.94% to 0.89 million shares with purchase of 0.81 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 1.61% valued currently at $16.35 million. In addition, Migdal Mutual Funds Ltd. raised its holdings by 9449.0 to 0.87 million shares. And The Vanguard Group, Inc. has lifted its position by 4.73% or 34878.0 shares – to 0.77 million shares.
With over 0.13 million Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (SPNS) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $21.51 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $2.73 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -18.03% and its price on 01/20/23 gained nearly 2.33%. Currently, there are 55.12M common shares owned by the public and among those 32.83M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 4 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for SPNS have a consensus price objective of $21.33. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $22.00 and a low of $20.00. The average price target is 9.43% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -7.55% over that period. But an upside of 2.23% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $22.00.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Sapiens International Corporation N.V. are Royce Small-Cap Total Return Fund, T. Rowe Price QM US Small Cap Gro, and iShares Russell 2000 ETF. Royce Small-Cap Total Return Fund owns 0.73 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $13.55 million. The company bought an additional 0.66 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 1.33% of the shares outstanding. T. Rowe Price QM US Small Cap Gro sold 37100.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 0.72 million shares valued at over $13.3 million and representing 1.31% of the shares outstanding. iShares Russell 2000 ETF sold 7381.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.7 million shares at a value of $13.02 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF now owns shares totaling to 1.28% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ: SPNS) opened at $21.22, up $0.2 from a prior closing price of $21.02. However, the script later moved the day high at 21.51, up 2.33%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 2.43% and 13.93% over the past three months. SPNS shares are trading 16.40% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -30.68% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $16.18 and touched a high of $32.54 over the same period. SPNS has an average intraday trading volume of 135.80K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 10.72%, 12.80%, and -1.06% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ: SPNS) shares accounts for 24.10% of the company’s 55.12M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 11.91%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 20.59% and — respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $1.21B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.28. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 22.62, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.95. The company has a PEG of 2.73 and a Quick Ratio of 1.90 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.21. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.53% over the week and 2.95% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (SPNS) will achieve an EPS of $0.29 for the current quarter, $0.31 for the next quarter and $1.3 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.27 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.31. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.31 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 31.00%, and 6.13% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 8.30% over the next five years, compared to 16.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 4 brokerage firm advisors rate Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (SPNS) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.60. Specifically, 1 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 4 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the SPNS, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. JP Morgan stated their Underweight rating for the stock in a research note on December 01, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $20. JP Morgan coverage for the Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (SPNS) stock in a research note released on December 14, 2021 offered a Underweight rating with a price target of $35. JP Morgan was of a view on July 13, 2021 that the stock is Neutral, while Goldman gave the stock Sell rating on June 03, 2021, issuing a price target of $34- $27. Jefferies on their part issued Buy rating on January 20, 2021.
