AQR Capital Management LLC Acquires 19,359 Shares of Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS)

AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS) by 98.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 38,950 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,359 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Progress Software worth $2,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Progress Software by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,534,242 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $300,509,000 after acquiring an additional 37,487 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in Progress Software in the first quarter valued at about $480,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its position in shares of Progress Software by 63.0% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 34,115 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,960,000 after buying an additional 13,185 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Progress Software by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 491,484 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $25,908,000 after acquiring an additional 19,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Progress Software during the first quarter valued at approximately $10,356,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on PRGS shares. StockNews.com cut Progress Software from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price 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 lifted their price target on shares of Progress Software from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Progress Software from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Progress Software from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Progress Software has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.00.

Progress Software Price Performance

Shares of PRGS opened at $66.02 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $58.89 and a 200-day moving average of $54.44. Progress Software Co. has a 1 year low of $48.00 and a 1 year high of $67.48. The company has a market capitalization of $2.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.28 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 24th. The software maker reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.12. Progress Software had a net margin of 11.55% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The business had revenue of $178.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.16 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. Progress Software’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Progress Software Co. will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Loren Jarrett sold 9,961 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 13,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $750,467.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progress Software Profile

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.