Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM)

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $265.00 price objective on the information technology services provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 19.95% from the stock’s current price.

EPAM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of EPAM Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays upgraded EPAM Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $250.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Scotiabank raised EPAM Systems from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $245.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of EPAM Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $235.00 to $295.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of EPAM Systems from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, EPAM Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $269.83.

EPAM Systems Stock Performance

Shares of EPAM traded down $37.18 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $220.93. The stock had a trading volume of 850,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 525,891. The company has a quick ratio of 4.56, a current ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company has a market cap of $12.53 billion, a PE ratio of 28.51, a PEG ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 1.51. EPAM Systems has a fifty-two week low of $169.43 and a fifty-two week high of $317.50. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $244.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $222.16.

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by ($0.52). EPAM Systems had a return on equity of 14.92% and a net margin of 9.68%. On average, equities analysts expect that EPAM Systems will post 8.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Jason D. Peterson sold 464 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.00, for a total transaction of $119,248.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 24,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,263,604. This trade represents a 1.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Viktar Dvorkin sold 6,758 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.53, for a total value of $1,733,629.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,334,890. This trade represents a 34.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,129,924 over the last three months. Company insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Aurora Investment Counsel grew its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 6,101 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,427,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in EPAM Systems by 2.5% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 2,029 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 15,632 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,655,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of EPAM Systems by 90.0% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in EPAM Systems by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 325 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. 91.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EPAM Systems Company Profile

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.