Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stake in Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS - Free Report) by 4.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,045,240 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 43,936 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 2.44% of Progress Software worth $70,418,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Progress Software in the third quarter worth $1,626,000. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Progress Software in the 3rd quarter worth about $225,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its position in shares of Progress Software by 7.0% during the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 9,476 shares of the software maker's stock worth $645,000 after acquiring an additional 619 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Progress Software by 19.3% during the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,863 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $126,000 after acquiring an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Progress Software by 107.5% in the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 17,149 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,155,000 after purchasing an additional 8,886 shares during the period.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Ian Pitt sold 1,747 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.07, for a total transaction of $113,677.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,167 shares of the company's stock, valued at $206,076.69. This represents a 35.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Anthony Folger sold 7,797 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.39, for a total transaction of $525,439.83. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 33,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,276,029.86. The trade was a 18.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Progress Software Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PRGS traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $66.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,521,732 shares, compared to its average volume of 501,096. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $67.14 and a 200 day moving average of $60.36. Progress Software Co. has a twelve month low of $48.00 and a twelve month high of $70.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a PE ratio of 35.50, a P/E/G ratio of 7.35 and a beta of 0.92.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 24th. The software maker reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.12. Progress Software had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 11.55%. The company had revenue of $178.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.16 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Progress Software Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PRGS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $68.00 price objective on shares of Progress Software in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Progress Software from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Progress Software from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Progress Software from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Progress Software from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $67.67.

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.