Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Buys 153,517 Shares of Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS - Free Report) by 468.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 186,297 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 153,517 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.43% of Progress Software worth $12,139,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Progress Software by 893.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 765 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 688 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Progress Software by 55.4% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,736 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 619 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Progress Software by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,091 shares of the software maker's stock worth $141,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Progress Software by 44.5% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,335 shares of the software maker's stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares during the period.

Insider Activity at Progress Software

In related news, insider Ian Pitt sold 703 shares of Progress Software stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.29, for a total value of $39,571.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,317 shares in the company, valued at $468,163.93. The trade was a 7.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Yufan Stephanie Wang sold 1,428 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 24th. The shares were 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 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PRGS traded up $0.43 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $61.45. 28,436 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 558,003. The company's 50 day moving average price is $56.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.01. Progress Software Co. has a 52 week low of $48.00 and a 52 week high of $70.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a PE ratio of 39.39, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.67.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 31st. The software maker reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.27. Progress Software had a net margin of 9.08% and a return on equity of 41.56%. The firm had revenue of $238.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $235.64 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.25 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Progress Software Co. will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PRGS. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. DA Davidson decreased their price target on Progress Software from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating and issued a $83.00 price objective on shares of Progress Software in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Progress Software from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Progress Software from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Progress Software presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $74.33.

Progress Software 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.