Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) Cut to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday.

PRGS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Guggenheim reiterated a buy rating and set a $64.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating and set a $66.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson reiterated a buy rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Progress Software from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Progress Software from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Progress Software currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $63.14.

Progress Software Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of Progress Software stock opened at $54.26 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.00. The company has a market cap of $2.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.09, a PEG ratio of 7.14 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Progress Software has a 1 year low of $48.00 and a 1 year high of $62.34.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 26th. The software maker reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.11. Progress Software had a net margin of 10.29% and a return on equity of 36.88%. The firm had revenue of $184.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $181.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Progress Software will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

Progress Software Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.175 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. Progress Software’s dividend payout ratio is 42.68%.

Insider Activity at Progress Software

In related news, CFO Anthony Folger sold 3,767 shares of Progress Software stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.50, for a total value of $190,233.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 37,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,895,871. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Anthony Folger sold 3,767 shares of Progress Software stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.50, for a total value of $190,233.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 37,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,895,871. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Yufan Stephanie Wang sold 779 shares of Progress Software stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.67, for a total value of $39,471.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,761 shares of company stock valued at $2,841,941 over the last ninety days. 3.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Progress Software

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kendall Capital Management raised its holdings in Progress Software by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Kendall Capital Management now owns 13,955 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $758,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Progress Software by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,231 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Progress Software by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 25,303 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,374,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in Progress Software by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 18,720 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Progress Software during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation develops, deploys, and manages business applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers OpenEdge, an application development platform for running business-critical applications; Chef, a DevOps/DevSecOps automation software; Developer Tools that consists of software development tooling collection, including .NET and JavaScript UI components for web, desktop and mobile applications, reporting and report management tools, and automated testing and mocking tools; Kemp LoadMaster, an application delivery and security product offering cloud-native, and virtual and hardware load balancers; and Sitefinity, a digital experience platform foundation delivering intelligent and ROI-driving tools for marketers.