EVERTEC (NYSE:EVTC) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

EVERTEC (NYSE:EVTC) was upgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $35.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $33.00. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential downside of 3.61% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, Susquehanna lowered shares of EVERTEC from a “neutral” rating to a “negative” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $38.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th.

EVERTEC Price Performance

Shares of EVTC stock opened at $36.31 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.88. EVERTEC has a one year low of $28.76 and a one year high of $42.21. The firm has a market cap of $2.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97.

EVERTEC (NYSE:EVTC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The business services provider reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $211.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.51 million. EVERTEC had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. On average, analysts expect that EVERTEC will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Miguel Vizcarrondo sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.11, for a total value of $1,364,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 129,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,431,844.08. This trade represents a 23.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in shares of EVERTEC during the second quarter valued at $8,143,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in EVERTEC by 24.8% during the 2nd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 88,055 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,928,000 after purchasing an additional 17,475 shares during the period. Invenomic Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of EVERTEC in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,407,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of EVERTEC by 7.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 480,616 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $15,981,000 after purchasing an additional 35,118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of EVERTEC by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 3,141,051 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $125,328,000 after buying an additional 9,110 shares during the period. 96.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

EVERTEC Company Profile

EVERTEC, Inc engages in transaction processing business and financial technology in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company operates through four segments: Payment Services – Puerto Rico & Caribbean; Latin America Payments and Solutions; Merchant Acquiring; and Business Solutions. It provides merchant acquiring services, which enable point of sales and e-commerce merchants to accept and process electronic methods of payment, such as debit, credit, prepaid, and electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards.