Plato Investment Management Ltd Acquires Shares of 803 EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM)

Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $188,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in EPAM Systems by 643.4% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 417,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $83,100,000 after purchasing an additional 361,363 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems by 48.8% during the fourth quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 664,286 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $155,323,000 after buying an additional 217,960 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of EPAM Systems by 45.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 515,351 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $102,570,000 after acquiring an additional 160,989 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems by 199.5% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 173,721 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,576,000 after acquiring an additional 115,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in EPAM Systems by 399.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 116,350 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,205,000 after acquiring an additional 93,039 shares in the last quarter. 91.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on EPAM shares. StockNews.com lowered EPAM Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Susquehanna upped their price target on EPAM Systems from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Barclays upgraded EPAM Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $250.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of EPAM Systems from $275.00 to $250.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of EPAM Systems from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $269.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Jason D. Peterson sold 464 shares of EPAM Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.00, for a total transaction of $119,248.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Viktar Dvorkin sold 6,758 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.53, for a total transaction of $1,733,629.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,334,890. This trade represents a 34.20 % decrease in their position. 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 ninety days. Company insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

EPAM Systems Price Performance

Shares of EPAM Systems stock opened at $198.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $11.24 billion, a PE ratio of 25.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $239.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $222.96. The company has a quick ratio of 4.56, a current ratio of 2.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. EPAM Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.43 and a 12-month high of $317.50.

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.75 by ($0.52). EPAM Systems had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 9.61%. The business had revenue of $1.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that EPAM Systems, Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

EPAM Systems 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.