Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases Shares of 119,393 EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 119,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $27,916,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.21% of EPAM Systems as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in EPAM. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of EPAM Systems by 643.4% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 417,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $83,100,000 after acquiring an additional 361,363 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC boosted its stake in EPAM Systems by 48.8% in the 4th quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 664,286 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $155,323,000 after purchasing an additional 217,960 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in EPAM Systems by 45.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 515,351 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $102,570,000 after purchasing an additional 160,989 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems by 199.5% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 173,721 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,576,000 after acquiring an additional 115,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems by 399.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 116,350 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,205,000 after acquiring an additional 93,039 shares in the last quarter. 91.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at EPAM Systems

In related news, CFO Jason D. Peterson sold 1,078 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.00, for a total transaction of $277,046.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 23,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,009,174. This trade represents a 4.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on EPAM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised EPAM Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $295.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com cut EPAM Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of EPAM Systems in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on EPAM Systems from $230.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on EPAM Systems from $275.00 to $250.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $267.33.

EPAM Systems Stock Performance

Shares of EPAM Systems stock opened at $182.28 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $232.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $222.26. The company has a market capitalization of $10.37 billion, a PE ratio of 23.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a quick ratio of 4.56, a current ratio of 2.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. EPAM Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.43 and a 52 week high of $302.19.

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by ($0.52). EPAM Systems had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 9.61%. The firm had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. As a group, analysts expect that EPAM Systems, Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

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.