Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS) Shares Bought by Lazard Asset Management LLC

Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS) by 178.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 101,842 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 65,202 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned 0.23% of Progress Software worth $6,634,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PRGS. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of Progress Software by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 30,820 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,008,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Progress Software by 23.2% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,091 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $141,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Progress Software by 44.5% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,335 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Progress Software by 45,918.9% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,143,110 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $74,474,000 after purchasing an additional 1,140,626 shares during the period. Finally, EMC Capital Management boosted its position in Progress Software by 43.8% during the 4th quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 3,822 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Progress Software Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of Progress Software stock opened at $61.80 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $57.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of $2.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.62, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.67. Progress Software Co. has a 1-year low of $48.00 and a 1-year high of $70.56.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, March 31st. The software maker reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $238.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $235.64 million. Progress Software had a return on equity of 41.56% and a net margin of 9.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.25 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Progress Software Co. will post 4.01 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Progress Software

In other news, insider Yufan Stephanie Wang sold 1,428 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.27, for a total value of $83,209.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ian Pitt sold 703 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.29, for a total value of $39,571.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,317 shares in the company, valued at $468,163.93. This represents a 7.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.40% of the company’s stock.

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.