Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Buy Rating for EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM)

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $265.00 target price on the information technology services provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 19.95% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on EPAM Systems from $230.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of EPAM Systems from $245.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of EPAM Systems from $207.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on EPAM Systems from $305.00 to $288.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Itau BBA Securities raised EPAM Systems from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $269.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EPAM Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $269.83.

EPAM Systems Price Performance

Shares of EPAM traded down $37.18 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $220.93. The company had a trading volume of 850,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 525,891. The company has a current ratio of 4.56, a quick ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. EPAM Systems has a 12-month low of $169.43 and a 12-month high of $317.50. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $244.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $222.16. The company has a market capitalization of $12.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.51, a PEG ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 1.51.

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.75 by ($0.52). EPAM Systems had a return on equity of 14.92% and a net margin of 9.68%. Research analysts expect that EPAM Systems will post 8.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Jason D. Peterson sold 464 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.00, for a total value of $119,248.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 24,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,263,604. This represents a 1.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Viktar Dvorkin sold 6,758 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.53, for a total value of $1,733,629.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 13,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,334,890. This represents a 34.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,300 shares of company stock worth $2,129,924 over the last three months. 4.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of EPAM Systems

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of EPAM Systems by 22.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,304,243 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $538,778,000 after purchasing an additional 414,942 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in EPAM Systems by 39.8% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,181,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $510,053,000 after buying an additional 620,551 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in EPAM Systems by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,349,088 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $314,616,000 after buying an additional 37,119 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of EPAM Systems by 96.1% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 818,881 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $191,471,000 after acquiring an additional 401,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in shares of EPAM Systems by 126.4% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 769,584 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $179,944,000 after acquiring an additional 429,644 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.58% of the company’s stock.

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.