Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Raises Stock Position in Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its holdings in Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 125,830 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,351 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Progress Software were worth $6,828,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PRGS. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Progress Software by 79.0% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 708,324 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $37,761,000 after acquiring an additional 312,537 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Progress Software during the 4th quarter valued at about $15,701,000. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Progress Software by 144.2% in the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 474,447 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $25,743,000 after purchasing an additional 280,195 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its holdings in Progress Software by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,966,696 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $106,713,000 after purchasing an additional 192,899 shares during the period. Finally, F M Investments LLC purchased a new position in Progress Software during the second quarter worth approximately $6,684,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Progress Software from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Progress Software from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $66.00 price objective on shares of Progress Software in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $68.00 target price on shares of Progress Software in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Progress Software has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.50.

Progress Software Stock Performance

Shares of Progress Software stock opened at $57.62 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $56.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.26. The company has a market cap of $2.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.13, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.12. Progress Software Co. has a one year low of $48.00 and a one year high of $60.33.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 25th. The software maker reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $175.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $168.60 million. Progress Software had a return on equity of 36.88% and a net margin of 10.29%. On average, research analysts predict that Progress Software Co. will post 3.91 EPS for the current year.

Progress Software Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.175 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. Progress Software’s payout ratio is 42.68%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Loren Jarrett sold 9,961 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.98, for a total value of $557,616.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 13,406 shares in the company, valued at $750,467.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Loren Jarrett sold 9,961 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.98, for a total transaction of $557,616.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 13,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $750,467.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ian Pitt sold 584 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $32,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $174,185. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,763 shares of company stock valued at $765,004 in the last 90 days. 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.