Clearbridge Investments LLC Buys 18,876 Shares of Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT)

Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 542,492 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,876 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Euronet Worldwide were worth $55,057,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Euronet Worldwide in the 4th quarter worth about $54,947,000. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Euronet Worldwide in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,309,000. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. grew its position in Euronet Worldwide by 48.6% during the third quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. now owns 1,069,693 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $84,912,000 after buying an additional 349,720 shares in the last quarter. Voss Capital LLC increased its stake in Euronet Worldwide by 52.8% during the 4th quarter. Voss Capital LLC now owns 565,256 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $57,368,000 after acquiring an additional 195,404 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Euronet Worldwide during the 3rd quarter valued at $11,744,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on EEFT. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Euronet Worldwide from $118.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Euronet Worldwide from $126.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Euronet Worldwide from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Euronet Worldwide from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup raised Euronet Worldwide from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $120.00 in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.89.

Euronet Worldwide Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ EEFT opened at $115.34 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $108.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.33. Euronet Worldwide, Inc. has a 1 year low of $73.84 and a 1 year high of $121.06. The firm has a market cap of $5.29 billion, a PE ratio of 20.31 and a beta of 1.39.

Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.25. Euronet Worldwide had a net margin of 7.63% and a return on equity of 26.71%. The firm had revenue of $857.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $837.85 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Euronet Worldwide, Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current year.

About Euronet Worldwide

Euronet Worldwide, Inc provides payment and transaction processing and distribution solutions to financial institutions, retailers, service providers, and individual consumers worldwide. It operates through three segments: Electronic Fund Transfer Processing, epay, and Money Transfer. The Electronic Fund Transfer Processing segment provides electronic payment solutions, including automated teller machine (ATM) cash withdrawal and deposit services, ATM network participation, outsourced ATM and point-of-sale (POS) management solutions, credit and debit and prepaid card outsourcing, card issuing, and merchant acquiring services.