EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,000,000 shares, an increase of 24.0% from the February 13th total of 806,300 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 699,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.4 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Jason D. Peterson sold 1,078 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.00, for a total value of $277,046.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 23,382 shares in the company, valued at $6,009,174. This represents a 4.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EPAM Systems

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EPAM. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of EPAM Systems by 90.0% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of EPAM Systems by 2,500.0% during the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 130 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in EPAM Systems by 88.5% in the 4th quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 147 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in EPAM Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its stake in EPAM Systems by 590.0% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 207 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. 91.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on EPAM. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded EPAM Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of EPAM Systems from $290.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of EPAM Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank cut 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 report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of EPAM Systems from $230.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $267.33.

EPAM Systems Stock Performance

EPAM stock traded up $3.61 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $186.34. 620,422 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 647,258. EPAM Systems has a twelve month low of $169.43 and a twelve month high of $301.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a quick ratio of 4.56, a current ratio of 2.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $230.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $222.38.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by ($0.52). The firm had revenue of $1.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. EPAM Systems had a net margin of 9.61% and a return on equity of 14.60%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that EPAM Systems will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

About EPAM Systems

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.