Parsons (NYSE:PSN) Trading Down 6% – Here’s Why

Shares of Parsons Co. (NYSE:PSN) traded down 6% on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $80.14 and last traded at $79.33. 661,881 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 1,204,475 shares. The stock had previously closed at $84.40.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PSN. William Blair lowered Parsons from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James downgraded Parsons from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Parsons from $122.00 to $102.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Parsons from $103.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on Parsons from $130.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $107.33.

Parsons Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $8.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $94.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $96.22.

Parsons (NYSE:PSN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Parsons had a return on equity of 12.74% and a net margin of 1.21%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Parsons Co. will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in shares of Parsons by 39.0% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 7,677 shares of the company’s stock valued at $631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,154 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Parsons in the 2nd quarter valued at about $793,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in Parsons during the second quarter worth $1,131,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Parsons by 118.3% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 59,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC boosted its stake in Parsons by 30.0% in the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 55,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,567,000 after purchasing an additional 12,875 shares during the period. 98.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Parsons

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.