New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Stock Position in Guidewire Software, Inc. $GWRE

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its position in shares of Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE:GWRE) by 57.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 152,521 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 206,533 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Guidewire Software were worth $35,058,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Guidewire Software by 3,636.9% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 731,467 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $172,224,000 after purchasing an additional 711,893 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment grew its stake in shares of Guidewire Software by 240.0% during the second quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 850,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $200,132,000 after buying an additional 600,000 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Guidewire Software by 405.1% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 538,303 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $126,743,000 after acquiring an additional 431,725 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new position in Guidewire Software during the 3rd quarter valued at $51,967,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Guidewire Software by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,922,651 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,100,838,000 after acquiring an additional 211,047 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GWRE. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Guidewire Software from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Guidewire Software from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Citigroup boosted their target price on Guidewire Software from $242.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $281.00 target price on shares of Guidewire Software in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, DA Davidson raised Guidewire Software from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $246.00 to $250.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $269.50.

Guidewire Software Trading Down 4.9%

Shares of GWRE stock opened at $140.34 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $189.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $215.53. Guidewire Software, Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.25 and a 1-year high of $272.60. The company has a market cap of $11.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 133.66, a PEG ratio of 9.62 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 3.48 and a quick ratio of 3.48.

Guidewire Software (NYSE:GWRE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The technology company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66. Guidewire Software had a net margin of 7.23% and a return on equity of 10.15%. The firm had revenue of $332.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $316.62 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. Guidewire Software’s quarterly revenue was up 26.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Guidewire Software, Inc. will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Guidewire Software declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, January 8th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to reacquire up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guidewire Software

In other news, CAO David Franklin Peterson sold 358 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.08, for a total value of $68,764.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 12,806 shares in the company, valued at $2,459,776.48. This represents a 2.72% 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. Also, CFO Jeffrey Elliott Cooper sold 216 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.87, for a total transaction of $39,067.92. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 72,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,158,835.11. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 51,558 shares of company stock worth $10,261,857 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

About Guidewire Software

Guidewire Software, Inc develops software products and cloud services for property and casualty (P&C) insurance carriers. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, the company’s offerings are designed to help insurers manage the core functions of their business—policy administration, billing and claims—while supporting digital engagement, analytics and operational modernization.

Guidewire’s core product portfolio is commonly known as the InsuranceSuite, which includes PolicyCenter for policy administration, BillingCenter for billing and receivables, and ClaimCenter for claims management.