Evertec (NYSE:EVTC) Stock Rating Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Evertec (NYSE:EVTC) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley set a $34.00 target price on Evertec in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Evertec from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Evertec from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.67.

Evertec Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of EVTC stock opened at $33.69 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. Evertec has a 1 year low of $21.81 and a 1 year high of $35.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $29.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.16, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.71.

Evertec (NYSE:EVTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The business services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.09. Evertec had a net margin of 9.00% and a return on equity of 32.81%. The firm had revenue of $282.99 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $272.94 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.92 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Evertec will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Evertec Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 4th. Investors of record on Monday, November 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 9th. Evertec’s payout ratio is presently 13.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Evertec news, Director Aldo Polak sold 1,094 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.37, for a total value of $33,224.78. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 14,849 shares in the company, valued at $450,964.13. This trade represents a 6.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Paola Perez-Surillo sold 17,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.56, for a total transaction of $551,858.16. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 46,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,465,046.76. This represents a 27.36% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 165,580 shares of company stock valued at $5,686,323. 1.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Evertec

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EVTC. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Evertec in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,835,000. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new position in shares of Evertec in the second quarter valued at $1,529,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Evertec in the second quarter valued at $4,327,000. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of Evertec by 293.5% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 63,472 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,791,000 after purchasing an additional 47,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Evertec in the second quarter valued at about $3,660,000. 96.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Evertec Company Profile

Evertec, Inc is a payment processing and financial technology company that provides transaction-processing services and business technology solutions to financial institutions, merchants, government agencies and other organizations. The company operates through businesses that support electronic payments, merchant acquiring, payment networks and related financial services.

Its products and services include debit and credit card processing, point-of-sale and e-commerce payment acceptance, automated teller machine processing, prepaid services, electronic bill payment and money transfer solutions.