Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Stake in Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS - Free Report) by 3.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 957,871 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 32,525 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 2.23% of Progress Software worth $49,340,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Progress Software by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,607 shares of the software maker's stock worth $546,000 after buying an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Progress Software by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,301 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $215,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Progress Software by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 4,446 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Progress Software by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 95,908 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,248,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Progress Software by 149.5% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 494 shares of the software maker's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PRGS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Progress Software in a report on Friday, June 27th. Guggenheim reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $83.00 target price on shares of Progress Software in a research report on Friday, June 27th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Progress Software from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Progress Software from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $75.17.

Progress Software Trading Down 5.3%

PRGS stock traded down $2.91 during trading on Monday, hitting $51.54. The company had a trading volume of 2,202,905 shares, compared to its average volume of 726,194. Progress Software Corporation has a 52-week low of $50.68 and a 52-week high of $70.56. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.34, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.43.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, June 30th. The software maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $237.36 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $237.23 million. Progress Software had a net margin of 6.63% and a return on equity of 43.72%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 35.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Progress Software Corporation will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Yufan Stephanie Wang sold 1,428 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.27, for a total transaction of $83,209.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 3.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progress Software Company Profile

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.