Parsons (NYSE:PSN) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Parsons Corporation (NYSE:PSN)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Friday after Truist Financial lowered their price target on the stock from $100.00 to $90.00. The stock had previously closed at $84.46, but opened at $67.00. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Parsons shares last traded at $67.1860, with a volume of 1,918,002 shares traded.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on PSN. KeyCorp raised their target price on Parsons from $87.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. William Blair upgraded shares of Parsons from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Zacks Research raised shares of Parsons from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Parsons from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of Parsons from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Parsons has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.91.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSN. Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new stake in shares of Parsons in the first quarter valued at about $136,183,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Parsons by 72.5% during the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,889,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $135,594,000 after acquiring an additional 793,807 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Parsons by 151.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,061,614 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,173,000 after purchasing an additional 639,481 shares during the last quarter. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Parsons in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,653,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Parsons in the second quarter valued at approximately $37,131,000. 98.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Parsons Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $83.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.69. The firm has a market cap of $7.10 billion, a PE ratio of 30.58, a PEG ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.65.

Parsons (NYSE:PSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. Parsons had a net margin of 3.69% and a return on equity of 11.98%. Parsons’s quarterly revenue was down 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Parsons Corporation will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Parsons Company Profile

Parsons Corporation provides integrated solutions and services in the defense, intelligence, and critical infrastructure markets in North America, the Middle East, and internationally. The company operates through Federal Solutions and Critical Infrastructure segments. The Federal Solutions segment provides critical technologies, such as cybersecurity; missile defense; intelligence; space launch and ground systems; space and weapon system resiliency; geospatial intelligence; signals intelligence; environmental remediation; border security, critical infrastructure protection; counter unmanned air systems; biometrics and bio surveillance solutions to U.S.