PAR Technology (NYSE:PAR) Given Buy Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of PAR Technology (NYSE:PAR) in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $55.00 target price on the software maker’s stock.

PAR has been the subject of several other reports. BTIG Research dropped their target price on PAR Technology from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of PAR Technology from $50.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 13th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of PAR Technology in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of PAR Technology in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $64.00.

PAR Technology Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE PAR opened at $37.35 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a PE ratio of -17.45 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. PAR Technology has a 12-month low of $31.65 and a 12-month high of $77.55. The company has a 50-day moving average of $35.90 and a 200 day moving average of $46.03.

PAR Technology (NYSE:PAR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The software maker reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.03). PAR Technology had a negative return on equity of 2.56% and a negative net margin of 19.21%.The business had revenue of $119.18 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $112.23 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.09) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PAR Technology will post -1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other PAR Technology news, CFO Bryan A. Menar sold 6,500 shares of PAR Technology stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total transaction of $230,945.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 71,481 shares in the company, valued at $2,539,719.93. This trade represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Voss Capital, Lp purchased 146,789 shares of PAR Technology stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $36.51 per share, for a total transaction of $5,359,266.39. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 3,564,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,145,444.52. This trade represents a 4.29% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 196,035 shares of company stock valued at $7,103,730. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAR. Huntington National Bank boosted its position in shares of PAR Technology by 66.2% during the second quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 437 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in PAR Technology by 68.6% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 563 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in PAR Technology by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,095 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $353,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in PAR Technology by 31.4% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,835 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $127,000 after acquiring an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in PAR Technology by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,915 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,153,000 after acquiring an additional 548 shares in the last quarter.

About PAR Technology

PAR Technology Corp is a provider of enterprise software and hardware solutions for the hospitality, foodservice and retail industries. The company’s platforms are designed to streamline front- and back-of-house operations, covering point-of-sale (POS) systems, kitchen display and dispatch, inventory and labor management, and reporting tools. PAR’s integrated approach enables operators of full-service restaurants, quick-service chains, bars, hotels, casinos and retail outlets to centralize data and automate workflows across multiple sites.

Key offerings include PAR Brink, a cloud-native POS application that supports touchscreen, mobile and tablet devices; PAR Cloud Services, which delivers software updates, reporting and analytics through a subscription model; and hardware solutions such as payment terminals, handheld devices and self-service kiosks.