Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) Shares Gap Up Following Dividend Announcement

Progress Software Corp (NASDAQ:PRGS) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock had previously closed at $45.63, but opened at $49.06. Progress Software shares last traded at $46.69, with a volume of 49,029 shares trading hands.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 2nd will be paid a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Progress Software’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.82%.

PRGS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. ValuEngine downgraded shares of Progress Software from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 18th. BidaskClub raised shares of Progress Software from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Progress Software from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 28th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $52.00 target price on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $57.00 target price (up previously from $49.00) on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $51.00.

The firm has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a PE ratio of 82.39 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $42.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.85.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The software maker reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $123.42 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.30 million. Progress Software had a net margin of 6.39% and a return on equity of 32.03%. The firm’s revenue was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Progress Software Corp will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Progress Software by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,650,593 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $290,098,000 after buying an additional 36,423 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Progress Software by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 868,508 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $33,055,000 after buying an additional 15,325 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its stake in Progress Software by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 757,562 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $31,477,000 after buying an additional 21,456 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Progress Software by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 528,452 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $20,310,000 after buying an additional 2,244 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Progress Software in the 2nd quarter worth about $20,310,000. 91.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Progress Software Company Profile (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Progress Software Corporation develops business applications worldwide. The company operates in three segments: OpenEdge, Data Connectivity and Integration, and Application Development and Deployment. The OpenEdge segment offers Progress OpenEdge, a development software, which builds multi-language applications for secure deployment across various platforms and devices, as well as cloud; Progress Corticon, a business rules management system that enables applications with decision automation and change process, and decision-related insight capabilities; Progress Kinvey, a platform for building enterprise applications; NativeScript, an open-source application development platform; and DataRPM, a cognitive predictive maintenance solution for industrial IoT.

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