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

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS - Free Report) by 3.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 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 quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 2.23% of Progress Software worth $49,340,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Progress Software by 1.8% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,607 shares of the software maker's stock worth $546,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Progress Software by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,855,525 shares of the software maker's stock worth $381,487,000 after purchasing an additional 45,246 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Progress Software by 22.7% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 65,952 shares of the software maker's stock worth $4,297,000 after purchasing an additional 12,191 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in shares of Progress Software by 110.5% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 25,117 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,594,000 after purchasing an additional 13,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Progress Software during the fourth quarter worth about $15,432,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered Progress Software from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 5th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price target on Progress Software from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $75.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Anthony Folger sold 5,529 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.97, for a total transaction of $292,871.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 43,559 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,307,320.23. This trade represents a 11.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Yufan Stephanie Wang sold 1,428 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.27, for a total value of $83,209.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progress Software Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Progress Software stock traded down $0.88 during trading on Thursday, hitting $50.64. The stock had a trading volume of 1,489,399 shares, compared to its average volume of 616,601. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $61.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.16. The stock has a market cap of $2.18 billion, a PE ratio of 38.66, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.43, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43. Progress Software Corporation has a 12 month low of $50.07 and a 12 month high of $70.56.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS - Get Free Report) last released 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. Progress Software had a net margin of 6.63% and a return on equity of 43.72%. The firm had revenue of $237.36 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $237.23 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.09 EPS. The business's revenue was up 35.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Progress Software Corporation will post 4.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.