Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 16,697 Shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation $CTSH

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ:CTSH) by 2.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 620,926 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,697 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Cognizant Technology Solutions were worth $38,094,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Evolve Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Cognizant Technology Solutions during the 4th quarter worth $2,642,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions in the 4th quarter valued at $8,421,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions by 34.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,874,274 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock valued at $238,565,000 after purchasing an additional 734,337 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 20,262,362 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $1,243,096,000 after purchasing an additional 2,633,683 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions by 44.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 108,131 shares of the information technology service provider’s stock worth $8,977,000 after purchasing an additional 33,248 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on CTSH. Evercore dropped their price objective on Cognizant Technology Solutions from $100.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Cognizant Technology Solutions from $72.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings cut Cognizant Technology Solutions from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from $83.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions from $60.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.26.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Stock Performance

CTSH stock opened at $44.77 on Friday. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation has a 1-year low of $37.08 and a 1-year high of $87.03. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market cap of $21.22 billion, a PE ratio of 9.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $47.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.04.

Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:CTSH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information technology service provider reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $5.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.41 billion. Cognizant Technology Solutions had a return on equity of 17.50% and a net margin of 10.41%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. Cognizant Technology Solutions has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.630-5.770 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation will post 5.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. Cognizant Technology Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.70%.

Cognizant Technology Solutions declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, May 18th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology service provider to purchase up to 9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Company Profile

Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a global professional services company that provides information technology, consulting and business process services to large enterprises. Its core offerings include digital engineering, application development and maintenance, cloud migration and managed services, data analytics and artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and industry-specific solutions. Cognizant works with clients to design and implement technology-enabled transformations that address customer experience, operational efficiency and new product and service delivery.

Founded in the 1990s and headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, Cognizant has grown into a multinational organization with delivery centers and operations across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.