Pendal Group Ltd lessened its stake in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions Co. (NASDAQ:CTSH – Get Rating) by 19.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,926 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock after selling 2,176 shares during the period. Pendal Group Ltd’s holdings in Cognizant Technology Solutions were worth $510,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Cognizant Technology Solutions by 11.9% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 54,965,447 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $3,157,215,000 after buying an additional 5,858,080 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Cognizant Technology Solutions by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,512,814 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $2,499,377,000 after buying an additional 273,391 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Cognizant Technology Solutions by 3.5% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 14,254,984 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $818,806,000 after buying an additional 486,853 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in Cognizant Technology Solutions by 19.1% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 9,693,839 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $557,475,000 after buying an additional 1,555,231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Cognizant Technology Solutions by 13.2% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 7,430,266 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $426,794,000 after buying an additional 865,943 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.12% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
CTSH has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 3rd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from $62.00 to $68.00 in a report on Sunday, January 15th. TheStreet raised shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 31st. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognizant Technology Solutions currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.90.
Cognizant Technology Solutions Trading Up 0.9 %
Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:CTSH – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The information technology service provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.78 billion. Cognizant Technology Solutions had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The company’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.10 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Cognizant Technology Solutions Co. will post 4.46 earnings per share for the current year.
Cognizant Technology Solutions Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 17th were given a $0.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 16th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. This is an increase from Cognizant Technology Solutions’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Cognizant Technology Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is 26.24%.
Cognizant Technology Solutions Company Profile
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. engages in the provision of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services. It operates through the following business segments: Financial Services, Healthcare, Products and Resources, and Communications, Media, and Technology. The Financial Services segment consists of banking and insurance services.
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