Morgan Stanley Upgrades EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) to “Equal Weight”

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $225.00 target price on the information technology services provider’s stock, down from their previous target price of $236.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 5.12% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on EPAM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on EPAM Systems from $315.00 to $334.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup reduced their target price on EPAM Systems from $325.00 to $275.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Susquehanna lifted their price target on EPAM Systems from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $295.00 price objective on shares of EPAM Systems in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of EPAM Systems from $288.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EPAM Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $327.27.

EPAM Systems Trading Down 3.2 %

Shares of EPAM stock opened at $237.13 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $283.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $273.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.54, a P/E/G ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 1.43. EPAM Systems has a fifty-two week low of $197.99 and a fifty-two week high of $317.50. The company has a quick ratio of 4.79, a current ratio of 4.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The information technology services provider reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. EPAM Systems had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 15.53%. EPAM Systems’s revenue was down 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that EPAM Systems will post 7.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Balazs Fejes sold 3,470 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.93, for a total transaction of $1,047,697.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 13,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,025,934.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Balazs Fejes sold 3,470 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.93, for a total transaction of $1,047,697.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 13,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,025,934.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Sergey Yezhkov sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total value of $2,416,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,770 shares in the company, valued at $3,857,050.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,820 shares of company stock valued at $5,101,117 in the last three months. Insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its position in EPAM Systems by 5.1% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 28,200 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,210,000 after acquiring an additional 1,370 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 1,054,229 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $269,556,000 after purchasing an additional 88,641 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of EPAM Systems by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 63,074 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $16,127,000 after purchasing an additional 1,558 shares in the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG lifted its holdings in EPAM Systems by 46.7% during the 4th quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 11,000 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,271,000 after purchasing an additional 3,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in EPAM Systems in the third quarter valued at about $13,402,000. 91.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.