20,917 Shares in Cognizant Technology Solutions Co. (NASDAQ:CTSH) Purchased by Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC

Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions Co. (NASDAQ:CTSH) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 20,917 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,609,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Unison Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Unison Advisors LLC now owns 29,595 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock valued at $2,276,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE grew its position in Cognizant Technology Solutions by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 24,965 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock valued at $1,920,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in Cognizant Technology Solutions by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 2,884 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Graypoint LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 4,795 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $369,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Cognizant Technology Solutions by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 9,153 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $704,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. 92.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Cognizant Technology Solutions from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Susquehanna upgraded Cognizant Technology Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $77.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Cognizant Technology Solutions from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.87.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions stock opened at $77.91 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.09. The company has a fifty day moving average of $75.64 and a 200 day moving average of $78.58. The company has a market capitalization of $38.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.93. Cognizant Technology Solutions Co. has a fifty-two week low of $63.79 and a fifty-two week high of $90.82.

Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:CTSH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The information technology service provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. Cognizant Technology Solutions had a return on equity of 16.78% and a net margin of 11.35%. The firm had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cognizant Technology Solutions Co. will post 4.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognizant Technology Solutions announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, March 25th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology service provider to reacquire up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Cognizant Technology Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is 26.11%.

About Cognizant Technology Solutions

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, a professional services company, provides consulting and technology, and outsourcing services in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Financial Services, Health Sciences, Products and Resources, and Communications, Media and Technology.