Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Reduces Position in EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM)

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM) by 17.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 205 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 44 shares during the period. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in EPAM Systems were worth $61,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of EPAM Systems by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,791,017 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,736,395,000 after acquiring an additional 19,130 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in EPAM Systems by 9.7% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,358,373 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $979,544,000 after buying an additional 385,196 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in EPAM Systems by 9.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,471,924 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $733,197,000 after buying an additional 206,636 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in EPAM Systems by 2.2% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,764,856 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $523,474,000 after buying an additional 38,642 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in EPAM Systems by 4.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,299,265 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $385,376,000 after buying an additional 50,627 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on EPAM shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of EPAM Systems from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $355.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Susquehanna upped their price target on EPAM Systems from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on EPAM Systems from $250.00 to $236.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Scotiabank raised EPAM Systems from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $265.00 to $350.00 in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of EPAM Systems from $312.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, EPAM Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $325.33.

EPAM Systems Price Performance

Shares of EPAM traded down $0.19 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $276.18. 187,947 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 522,190. The stock has a market cap of $15.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.69 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 4.79 and a current ratio of 4.79. EPAM Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $197.99 and a 1-year high of $317.50. The company has a 50 day moving average of $294.67 and a 200-day moving average of $273.19.

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The information technology services provider reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. EPAM Systems had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 15.53%. EPAM Systems’s quarterly revenue was down 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Analysts expect that EPAM Systems, Inc. will post 7.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Sergey Yezhkov sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total value of $2,416,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,857,050.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Sergey Yezhkov sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total value of $2,416,320.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,857,050.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Balazs Fejes sold 3,470 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.93, for a total transaction of $1,047,697.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 13,334 shares in the company, valued at $4,025,934.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,820 shares of company stock valued at $5,101,117 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.