Anchor Capital Advisors LLC Grows Position in Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS) by 18.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,222 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,238 shares during the period. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Progress Software were worth $772,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PRGS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Progress Software by 2.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,496,755 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $289,019,000 after buying an additional 123,157 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its position in Progress Software by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,701,094 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $92,369,000 after purchasing an additional 33,289 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new stake in Progress Software in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,737,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Progress Software by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 493,641 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $25,956,000 after purchasing an additional 5,289 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of Progress Software by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 472,228 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $25,667,000 after purchasing an additional 2,567 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Progress Software from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wedbush raised their target price on Progress Software from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $66.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. StockNews.com raised Progress Software from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, DA Davidson started coverage on Progress Software in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Progress Software currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $64.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Progress Software news, CFO Anthony Folger sold 7,500 shares of Progress Software stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.41, for a total transaction of $430,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 37,046 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,126,810.86. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Yogesh K. Gupta sold 40,174 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.95, for a total transaction of $2,287,909.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 186,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,624,478.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Anthony Folger sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.41, for a total transaction of $430,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 37,046 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,126,810.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 89,245 shares of company stock valued at $4,946,406 in the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Progress Software Stock Performance

PRGS opened at $49.82 on Wednesday. Progress Software Co. has a twelve month low of $49.00 and a twelve month high of $62.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.19 billion, a PE ratio of 32.35, a PEG ratio of 6.53 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $52.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.63.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 26th. The software maker reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $184.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.91 million. Progress Software had a net margin of 9.67% and a return on equity of 36.62%. The business’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Progress Software Co. will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progress Software Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.175 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Progress Software’s payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

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.