ASGN (NYSE:EFOR) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

ASGN Incorporated (NYSE:EFOR)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after Truist Financial upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. The stock had previously closed at $18.31, but opened at $20.03. Truist Financial now has a $36.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $33.00. ASGN shares last traded at $21.13, with a volume of 215,954 shares.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of ASGN from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Friday, May 29th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of ASGN from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $33.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of ASGN from $35.00 to $17.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of ASGN from $54.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of ASGN from $62.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ASGN presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $29.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at ASGN

In other news, Director Brian J. Callaghan acquired 5,121 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $20.27 per share, for a total transaction of $103,802.67. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 328,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,667,816.50. This trade represents a 1.58% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Rose Cunningham purchased 1,125 shares of ASGN stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $22.27 per share, with a total value of $25,053.75. Following the acquisition, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,587 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $347,122.49. This trade represents a 7.78% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders bought a total of 8,715 shares of company stock worth $183,984 over the last quarter. 14.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of ASGN

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. New South Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ASGN by 39.2% during the fourth quarter. New South Capital Management Inc. now owns 635,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,588,000 after acquiring an additional 178,895 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL acquired a new stake in ASGN during the third quarter worth approximately $8,030,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its stake in ASGN by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,206,940 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,139,000 after acquiring an additional 134,513 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in ASGN by 106.4% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 62,934 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,032,000 after acquiring an additional 32,437 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in ASGN by 68.9% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 68,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,647,000 after acquiring an additional 27,903 shares during the period. 95.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ASGN Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $805.97 million, a PE ratio of 8.68 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.23.

ASGN (NYSE:EFOR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.28). The firm had revenue of $968.30 million for the quarter. ASGN had a return on equity of 10.30% and a net margin of 2.46%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.92 EPS. ASGN has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.720-0.900 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ASGN Incorporated will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

About ASGN

ASGN is a provider of professional services that connects skilled talent with organizations seeking technology, digital, creative and engineering expertise. The firm focuses on staffing and workforce solutions, delivering contract and permanent placement services as well as project-based consulting and managed services to support clients’ technical and operational needs.

Its offerings commonly include IT consulting, digital transformation support, application development and maintenance, data and analytics, cybersecurity, cloud services and engineering resources.