EVERTEC (NYSE:EVTC) Stock Rating Upgraded by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of EVERTEC (NYSE:EVTC) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $35.00 price objective on the business services provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $33.00.

Separately, Susquehanna lowered EVERTEC from a “neutral” rating to a “negative” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th.

EVERTEC Stock Performance

EVERTEC stock opened at $36.31 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.31 billion, a PE ratio of 28.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.15. EVERTEC has a one year low of $28.76 and a one year high of $42.21. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $33.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97.

EVERTEC (NYSE:EVTC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The business services provider reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $211.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.51 million. EVERTEC had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that EVERTEC will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EVERTEC Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 28th. EVERTEC’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.63%.

Insider Activity

In other EVERTEC news, EVP Miguel Vizcarrondo sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.11, for a total transaction of $1,364,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 129,928 shares in the company, valued at $4,431,844.08. This represents a 23.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EVERTEC

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in EVERTEC by 1.1% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 35,084 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,191,000 after purchasing an additional 381 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its position in shares of EVERTEC by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 32,400 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC raised its stake in EVERTEC by 12.5% during the third quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 3,600 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $122,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in EVERTEC by 3.2% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 18,323 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $609,000 after acquiring an additional 561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL boosted its stake in EVERTEC by 2.2% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 31,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,061,000 after acquiring an additional 679 shares during the period. 96.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About EVERTEC

EVERTEC, Inc engages in transaction processing business and financial technology in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company operates through four segments: Payment Services – Puerto Rico & Caribbean; Latin America Payments and Solutions; Merchant Acquiring; and Business Solutions. It provides merchant acquiring services, which enable point of sales and e-commerce merchants to accept and process electronic methods of payment, such as debit, credit, prepaid, and electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards.