Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

EEFT has been the subject of several other research reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Euronet Worldwide from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $136.00 price objective on shares of Euronet Worldwide in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Euronet Worldwide in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Euronet Worldwide from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Citigroup lowered Euronet Worldwide from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $118.00 to $110.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $127.13.

Euronet Worldwide Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EEFT opened at $103.46 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.44. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $101.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $102.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. Euronet Worldwide has a 1-year low of $91.07 and a 1-year high of $117.66.

Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.11. Euronet Worldwide had a return on equity of 26.86% and a net margin of 8.49%. The business had revenue of $1.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.53 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Euronet Worldwide will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Kevin J. Caponecchi sold 52,034 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.61, for a total transaction of $5,547,344.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,288 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,625,603.68. This represents a 36.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Martin L. Bruckner sold 9,397 shares of Euronet Worldwide stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.31, for a total transaction of $1,008,392.07. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,290,575.73. This represents a 19.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 82,910 shares of company stock valued at $8,780,102 in the last 90 days. 10.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Euronet Worldwide in the second quarter valued at approximately $57,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Euronet Worldwide in the second quarter valued at $80,000. Mendota Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Euronet Worldwide in the third quarter valued at $100,000. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Euronet Worldwide by 131.8% during the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 1,064 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $110,000 after buying an additional 605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Euronet Worldwide by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,087 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the period. 91.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Euronet Worldwide

Euronet Worldwide, Inc provides payment and transaction processing and distribution solutions to financial institutions, retailers, service providers, and individual consumers worldwide. It operates through three segments: Electronic Fund Transfer Processing, epay, and Money Transfer. The Electronic Fund Transfer Processing segment provides electronic payment solutions, including automated teller machine (ATM) cash withdrawal and deposit services, ATM network participation, outsourced ATM and point-of-sale (POS) management solutions, credit and debit and prepaid card outsourcing, card issuing, and merchant acquiring services.