Constellation Software (TSE:CSU) Hits New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Constellation Software Inc. (TSE:CSU) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday. The company traded as high as C$3,479.60 and last traded at C$3,449.45, with a volume of 20,934 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$3,465.98.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. National Bank Financial lifted their price target on shares of Constellation Software from C$3,500.00 to C$3,700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Constellation Software from C$3,185.00 to C$3,294.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Desjardins lifted their price objective on Constellation Software from C$3,800.00 to C$3,900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a C$4,400.00 target price on shares of Constellation Software and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 26th. Finally, RBC Dominion Securities set a C$4,400.00 price target on Constellation Software and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$3,931.27.

Constellation Software Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of C$74.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.82. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is C$3,075.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$2,791.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 141.06, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.55.

Constellation Software (TSE:CSU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 6th. The company reported C$14.25 earnings per share for the quarter. Constellation Software had a return on equity of 25.24% and a net margin of 7.57%. The firm had revenue of C$5 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts forecast that Constellation Software Inc. will post 55.46 EPS for the current year.

Constellation Software Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th were paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 18th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Constellation Software’s payout ratio is 8.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Constellation Software news, Director Jamal Nizam Baksh sold 149 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$2,871.23, for a total transaction of C$427,813.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$410,585.89. The trade was a 51.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider John Edward Billowits sold 1,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$3,203.00, for a total value of C$3,843,600.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 12,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$39,621,110. This trade represents a 8.84% decrease in their position. Corporate insiders own 5.69% of the company’s stock.

About Constellation Software

Constellation Software is an international provider of market-leading software and services to a number of industries. Our mission is to acquire, manage and build market-leading software businesses that develop specialized, mission-critical software solutions to address the specific needs of our particular industries. Our company was founded in 1995 to assemble a portfolio of vertical market software companies that have the potential to be leaders in their particular market. Since then, we have grown rapidly through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth, and established a strong constellation of companies with a large, diverse customer base.