Norges Bank Buys Shares of 740,114 EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM)

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE:EPAM) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 740,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $173,053,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of EPAM Systems by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 15,632 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,655,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in EPAM Systems by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 93,599 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,595,000 after buying an additional 9,322 shares in the last quarter. Korea Investment CORP raised its holdings in shares of EPAM Systems by 50.3% in the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 65,200 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,245,000 after acquiring an additional 21,807 shares during the last quarter. Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of EPAM Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $1,423,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of EPAM Systems by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 533,571 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $124,760,000 after acquiring an additional 47,659 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on EPAM shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of EPAM Systems from $230.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of EPAM Systems from $305.00 to $288.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of EPAM Systems from $275.00 to $250.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com downgraded EPAM Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, 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 report on Friday, December 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $262.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Jason D. Peterson sold 1,078 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.00, for a total value of $277,046.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 23,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,009,174. This represents a 4.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

EPAM Systems Price Performance

EPAM opened at $168.72 on Monday. 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 company has a market cap of $9.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $220.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $220.74. EPAM Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $167.00 and a 52-week high of $277.04.

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) last released its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.21 billion. On average, analysts expect that EPAM Systems, Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

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.