Parsons (NYSE:PSN) Stock Lifted to "Hold" by Zacks Research

Key Points

• Zacks Research upgraded Parsons from “strong sell” to “hold,” while analysts overall maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $63.00.
• Parsons opened at $42.36, well below its 52-week high of $89.50. The company’s latest quarter missed expectations, reporting a loss of $0.06 per share versus the $0.76 consensus estimate, while revenue declined 0.5% year over year to $1.59 billion.
• Director George Ball purchased 20,000 shares valued at approximately $959,400, and institutional investors collectively own 98.02% of Parsons’ stock.

Parsons (NYSE:PSN - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued on Monday, Zacks reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on PSN. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Parsons from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $52.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Sunday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Parsons from $79.00 to $66.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Parsons from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their target price for the company from $48.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Parsons from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $60.00 price objective (down from $75.00) on shares of Parsons in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $63.00.

Parsons Trading Up 0.6%

PSN stock opened at $42.36 on Monday. Parsons has a 52-week low of $36.26 and a 52-week high of $89.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.21, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.72. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $45.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.45.

Parsons (NYSE:PSN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.82). The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. Parsons had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 2.50%.The business's revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Parsons will post 2.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director George Ball purchased 20,000 shares of Parsons stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 7th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $47.97 per share, with a total value of $959,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 170,383 shares in the company, valued at $8,173,272.51. This represents a 13.30% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Parsons

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Parsons by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,892,400 shares of the company's stock valued at $102,494,000 after acquiring an additional 179,463 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Parsons in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $9,053,000. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new stake in Parsons in the second quarter valued at approximately $89,697,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in shares of Parsons during the fourth quarter worth $1,853,000. Finally, Goodman Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Parsons by 44.7% in the first quarter. Goodman Financial Corp now owns 319,144 shares of the company's stock valued at $17,288,000 after buying an additional 98,560 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.02% of the company's stock.

Parsons Company Profile

Parsons Corporation NYSE: PSN is a technology-driven engineering, infrastructure and defense contractor. The company provides solutions for government and commercial customers in areas including national security, intelligence, cybersecurity, space, missile defense, transportation, environmental remediation, water and energy.

Parsons organizes its operations around Federal Solutions and Critical Infrastructure. Its offerings include systems engineering, program management, software and technology development, cyber and intelligence services, engineering and construction management, infrastructure modernization, and environmental services.

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