Weitz Investment Management Inc. Takes $11.71 Million Position in Euronet Worldwide, Inc. $EEFT

Weitz Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 160,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,710,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EEFT. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Euronet Worldwide by 48.4% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 334 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Euronet Worldwide by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 34,035 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,450,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Euronet Worldwide by 23.6% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 775 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC raised its holdings in shares of Euronet Worldwide by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 8,748 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $666,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Euronet Worldwide by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,817 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $823,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on EEFT shares. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Euronet Worldwide from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price objective on shares of Euronet Worldwide in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Euronet Worldwide from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $96.00.

Euronet Worldwide Price Performance

Shares of Euronet Worldwide stock opened at $70.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Euronet Worldwide, Inc. has a one year low of $62.50 and a one year high of $98.52. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.82.

Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.93 by ($0.11). Euronet Worldwide had a net margin of 6.63% and a return on equity of 28.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.56 EPS. Euronet Worldwide’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Euronet Worldwide, Inc. will post 9.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Thomas A. Mcdonnell purchased 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $66.87 per share, with a total value of $200,610.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 100,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,701,644.53. This represents a 3.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 12.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Euronet Worldwide Profile

Euronet Worldwide, Inc is a global financial technology company specializing in electronic payment services and transaction processing. Through its three primary business segments—Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Network Services, epay® Prepaid and Payment Services, and Money Transfer—Euronet provides end-to-end solutions that enable secure, efficient and convenient payments for consumers, financial institutions and retailers worldwide.

In its EFT Network Services arm, Euronet operates one of the world’s largest ATM and point-of-sale (POS) terminal networks, offering deployment, management and connectivity services.