EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM) Short Interest Down 11.2% in July

EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 923,600 shares, a drop of 11.2% from the July 15th total of 1,040,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 831,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.1 days. Currently, 1.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EPAM Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in EPAM Systems by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 7,698,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,289,207,000 after purchasing an additional 51,228 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of EPAM Systems by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,865,123 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,895,872,000 after acquiring an additional 39,531 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of EPAM Systems by 14,325.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 657,070 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $123,601,000 after acquiring an additional 652,515 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of EPAM Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $184,713,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of EPAM Systems by 80.0% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 595,486 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $112,017,000 after acquiring an additional 264,570 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.58% of the company’s stock.

EPAM Systems Stock Performance

Shares of EPAM traded up $0.94 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $202.29. 206,762 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 633,420. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $193.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $233.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 4.68 and a quick ratio of 4.68. EPAM Systems has a twelve month low of $169.43 and a twelve month high of $317.50. The company has a market capitalization of $11.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.67, a PEG ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 1.45.

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The information technology services provider reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.19. EPAM Systems had a return on equity of 14.95% and a net margin of 9.28%. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.21 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that EPAM Systems will post 7.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EPAM Systems declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, August 8th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 4.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EPAM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on EPAM Systems from $325.00 to $275.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on EPAM Systems from $350.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 10th. Barclays lifted their price objective on EPAM Systems from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Wolfe Research cut EPAM Systems from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on EPAM Systems from $345.00 to $258.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EPAM Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $263.33.

About EPAM Systems

EPAM Systems, Inc provides digital platform engineering and software development services worldwide. The company offers engineering services, including requirements analysis and platform selection, customization, cross-platform migration, implementation, and integration; infrastructure management services, such as software development, testing, performance tuning, deployment, maintenance, and support services.