Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 236,877 Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 236,877 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $15,432,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.55% of Progress Software as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 lifted its position in Progress Software by 55.4% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Progress Software by 23.2% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,091 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $141,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of Progress Software by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,301 shares of the software maker's stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PRGS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Progress Software from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Progress Software from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Progress Software in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Progress Software from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $83.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $74.33.

Insider Transactions at Progress Software

In other news, insider Ian Pitt sold 703 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.29, for a total transaction of $39,571.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,317 shares of the company's stock, valued at $468,163.93. This represents a 7.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Anthony Folger sold 15,000 shares of Progress Software stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $844,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 44,564 shares in the company, valued at $2,508,953.20. This represents a 25.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 18,185 shares of company stock valued at $1,024,193 in the last 90 days. 3.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progress Software Stock Performance

PRGS traded up $0.04 during trading on Friday, reaching $59.11. 598,497 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 557,081. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $55.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Progress Software Co. has a 1 year low of $48.00 and a 1 year high of $70.56.

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, beating 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 company had revenue of $238.02 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $235.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Progress Software Co. will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.