UBS Group Upgrades Jack Henry & Associates (NASDAQ:JKHY) to “Buy”

UBS Group upgraded shares of Jack Henry & Associates (NASDAQ:JKHY – Get Rating) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $184.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Jack Henry & Associates from $191.00 to $181.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Jack Henry & Associates from $185.00 to $175.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a sector perform rating and set a $184.00 price target (down from $193.00) on shares of Jack Henry & Associates in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Jack Henry & Associates from $198.00 to $188.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Jack Henry & Associates to $170.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Jack Henry & Associates currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $180.22.

Jack Henry & Associates Stock Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:JKHY opened at $146.46 on Wednesday. Jack Henry & Associates has a 1-year low of $139.28 and a 1-year high of $212.62. The company has a 50-day moving average of $170.02 and a 200 day moving average of $180.22. The firm has a market cap of $10.69 billion, a PE ratio of 30.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

Jack Henry & Associates (NASDAQ:JKHY – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 8th. The technology company reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Jack Henry & Associates had a return on equity of 24.81% and a net margin of 17.66%. The business had revenue of $505.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $515.47 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.30 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Jack Henry & Associates will post 4.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jack Henry & Associates Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 8th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This is a positive change from Jack Henry & Associates’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 7th. Jack Henry & Associates’s payout ratio is currently 43.15%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Laura G. Kelly acquired 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $145.29 per share, for a total transaction of $145,290.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 16,194 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,352,826.26. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Jack Henry & Associates

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in JKHY. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Jack Henry & Associates by 117.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,709,702 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $300,155,000 after buying an additional 922,054 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Jack Henry & Associates by 27.5% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,326,194 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $238,741,000 after purchasing an additional 286,117 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Jack Henry & Associates by 523.8% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 246,806 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $48,633,000 after purchasing an additional 207,243 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Jack Henry & Associates during the fourth quarter valued at $27,408,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Jack Henry & Associates by 49.9% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 424,166 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,317,000 after purchasing an additional 141,157 shares during the period. 90.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Jack Henry & Associates

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Jack Henry & Associates, Inc is a technology company, which engages in the provision of technology solutions and payment processing services primarily for financial services organizations. It operates through the following segments: Core, Payments, Complementary, and Corporate and Other. The Core segment provides core information processing platforms to banks and credit unions, which consist of integrated applications required to process deposit, loan, general ledger transactions, and maintain centralized customer or member information.