Progress Software’s (PRGS) Buy Rating Reiterated at Guggenheim

Guggenheim reissued their buy rating on shares of Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $64.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on PRGS. Oppenheimer reissued an outperform rating and issued a $66.00 target price on shares of Progress Software in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. DA Davidson started coverage on Progress Software in a report on Thursday, March 28th. They issued a buy rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Progress Software from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Progress Software from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $63.14.

Progress Software Stock Performance

Shares of PRGS opened at $54.24 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. Progress Software has a 52-week low of $48.00 and a 52-week high of $62.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $50.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.00. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.33 and a beta of 0.93.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, March 26th. The software maker reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.11. Progress Software had a net margin of 10.29% and a return on equity of 35.79%. The business had revenue of $184.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $181.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.01 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Progress Software will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progress Software Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.175 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. Progress Software’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.68%.

Insider Transactions at Progress Software

In other Progress Software news, Director David Krall sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.00, for a total transaction of $1,020,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 86,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,418,691. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director David Krall sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.00, for a total transaction of $1,020,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 86,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,418,691. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Yufan Stephanie Wang sold 779 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 have sold a total of 55,761 shares of company stock worth $2,841,941 over the last ninety days. 3.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Progress Software by 116.4% during the 4th quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 61,121 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,319,000 after acquiring an additional 32,871 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its holdings in Progress Software by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 30,637 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,664,000 after purchasing an additional 813 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its position in shares of Progress Software by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,701,094 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $92,369,000 after buying an additional 33,289 shares in the last quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Progress Software by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 17,365 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $943,000 after buying an additional 665 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Progress Software by 197.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 132,827 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,213,000 after buying an additional 88,175 shares in the last quarter.

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.