Bentley Systems, Incorporated (NASDAQ:BSY) Short Interest Update

Bentley Systems, Incorporated (NASDAQ:BSY - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,970,000 shares, an increase of 5.1% from the December 31st total of 5,680,000 shares. Currently, 4.4% of the company's stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 899,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.6 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Bentley Systems from $65.00 to $57.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and set a $62.00 price objective on shares of Bentley Systems in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Bentley Systems in a report on Monday, December 9th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $57.29.

Bentley Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BSY traded down $0.25 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $46.74. 750,937 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,174,514. The company's 50-day moving average price is $47.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.52. Bentley Systems has a 1-year low of $43.82 and a 1-year high of $57.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.11, a PEG ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.52.

Bentley Systems (NASDAQ:BSY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.24. The company had revenue of $335.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $340.36 million. Bentley Systems had a return on equity of 29.50% and a net margin of 27.73%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.18 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Bentley Systems will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bentley Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Bentley Systems's payout ratio is currently 21.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Keith A. Bentley sold 1,152 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.33, for a total transaction of $53,372.16. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,703,876 shares in the company, valued at $773,890,575.08. This represents a 0.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 21.12% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Bentley Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BSY. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Bentley Systems in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Private Trust Co. NA raised its stake in shares of Bentley Systems by 61.1% in the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 997 shares of the company's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 378 shares in the last quarter. Tobam acquired a new position in shares of Bentley Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its position in shares of Bentley Systems by 500.0% during the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,200 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in Bentley Systems by 71.8% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 2,105 shares of the company's stock valued at $107,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. 44.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, provides infrastructure engineering software solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company offers open modeling engineering applications, such as MicroStation, OpenBridge, OpenBuildings, OpenCities, OpenComms, OpenFlows, OpenPlant, OpenRail, OpenRoads, OpenSite, OpenTower, OpenTunnel, OpenUtilities, and OpenWindowPower; and open simulation engineering applications, including ADINA, AutoPIPE, CUBE, DYNAMEQ, EMME, LEGION, Power Line Systems, RAM, SACS, SPIDA, and STAAD; and geoprofessional applications for modeling and simulation of near and deep subsurface conditions, including AGS, Central, GeoStudio, Imago, Leapfrog, MX Deposit, Oasis montaj, OpenGround, and PLAXIS.