Sapiens International Co. (NASDAQ:SPNS) Short Interest Up 28.3% in April

Sapiens International Co. (NASDAQ:SPNS) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 219,700 shares, an increase of 28.3% from the March 31st total of 171,200 shares. Approximately 0.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 129,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.7 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SPNS. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sapiens International during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. acquired a new position in Sapiens International during the first quarter worth about $40,000. Psagot Value Holdings Ltd. Israel acquired a new position in Sapiens International during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Sapiens International by 37.2% during the third quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $109,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Sapiens International during the third quarter worth about $133,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 30.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on SPNS shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Sapiens International from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Sapiens International from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.33.

Sapiens International Stock Up 0.6 %

SPNS traded up $0.18 during trading on Friday, hitting $31.30. The stock had a trading volume of 88,671 shares, compared to its average volume of 169,133. The company has a market capitalization of $1.73 billion, a PE ratio of 27.95 and a beta of 1.16. Sapiens International has a twelve month low of $19.91 and a twelve month high of $35.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.11. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.28.

Sapiens International (NASDAQ:SPNS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The technology company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $130.86 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $130.85 million. Sapiens International had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 16.92%. Sapiens International’s revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Sapiens International will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Sapiens International Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.7%. This is a boost from Sapiens International’s previous Semi-Annual dividend of $0.26. Sapiens International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.00%.

Sapiens International Company Profile

Sapiens International Corporation N.V. provides software solutions for the insurance industry in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company provides various solutions for property and casualty commercial and personal lines, life and pensions, and reinsurance fields.