Cetera Investment Advisers Purchases New Shares in Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT)

Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new stake in shares of Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,314 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Verint Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Verint Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $52,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Verint Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $52,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its position in Verint Systems by 808.0% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,925 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 1,713 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Verint Systems by 45.7% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,955 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 613 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.95% of the company’s stock.

Verint Systems Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ VRNT opened at $17.61 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.43. Verint Systems Inc. has a 52-week low of $14.15 and a 52-week high of $38.17. The firm has a market cap of $1.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Verint Systems (NASDAQ:VRNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The technology company reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by ($0.28). The business had revenue of $253.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $276.82 million. Verint Systems had a return on equity of 15.79% and a net margin of 8.49%. The business’s revenue was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.07 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Verint Systems Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verint Systems news, Director Stephen J. Gold sold 2,744 shares of Verint Systems stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.07, for a total transaction of $44,096.08. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 28,473 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $457,561.11. The trade was a 8.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Peter Fante sold 9,439 shares of Verint Systems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.50, for a total transaction of $155,743.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,450 shares in the company, valued at $337,425. This trade represents a 31.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRNT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Verint Systems from $34.00 to $23.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Verint Systems in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Verint Systems from $36.00 to $29.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Wedbush dropped their target price on shares of Verint Systems from $38.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Verint Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.33.

About Verint Systems

Verint Systems Inc provides customer engagement solutions worldwide. It offers forecasting and scheduling, channels and routing, knowledge management, fraud and security solutions, quality and compliance, analytics and insights, real-time assistance, self-services, financial compliance, and voice pf the consumer solutions.