Parsons (NYSE:PSN) Shares Up 7% on Insider Buying Activity

Parsons Corporation (NYSE:PSN) shares were up 7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after an insider bought additional shares in the company. The company traded as high as $52.22 and last traded at $52.1460. Approximately 347,597 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 1,273,576 shares. The stock had previously closed at $48.74.

Specifically, CEO Carey A. Smith bought 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $49.97 per share, with a total value of $624,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,751,538.72. This represents a 2.22% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PSN shares. Citigroup decreased their target price on Parsons from $70.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Parsons from $104.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Zacks Research raised Parsons from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. KeyCorp downgraded Parsons from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Parsons in a report on Sunday, May 3rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Parsons has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.17.

Parsons Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $55.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.95, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.60.

Parsons (NYSE:PSN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. Parsons had a return on equity of 11.52% and a net margin of 3.62%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Parsons Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Parsons

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Parsons by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,892,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,494,000 after purchasing an additional 179,463 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Parsons by 38.0% during the 1st quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 602 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Parsons by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 107,120 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,803,000 after acquiring an additional 1,478 shares during the period. Goodman Financial Corp increased its position in Parsons by 44.7% in the 1st quarter. Goodman Financial Corp now owns 319,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,288,000 after acquiring an additional 98,560 shares during the period. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC increased its position in Parsons by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 14,915 shares of the company’s stock valued at $808,000 after acquiring an additional 2,023 shares during the period. 98.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Parsons Company Profile

Parsons Corporation (NYSE: PSN) is a technology-driven engineering, construction, technical and professional services firm. The company delivers end-to-end solutions that span feasibility studies, design and engineering, construction management, system integration and ongoing operations support. Parsons serves both government and commercial clients and focuses on critical infrastructure, defense, security, intelligence and environmental programs.

Core services include program and construction management for transportation systems, water and environmental infrastructure, cybersecurity and advanced systems integration.