First Merchants Corp Reduces Stake in Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY)

First Merchants Corp reduced its holdings in Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,956 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 306 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Jack Henry & Associates were worth $1,219,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Jack Henry & Associates by 50.8% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 780,319 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $136,720,000 after buying an additional 263,021 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Jack Henry & Associates by 7.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,791,810 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $316,326,000 after buying an additional 131,515 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its position in Jack Henry & Associates by 2,032.2% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 127,654 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $22,540,000 after acquiring an additional 121,667 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Jack Henry & Associates by 80.0% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 207,757 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $36,677,000 after acquiring an additional 92,359 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of Jack Henry & Associates by 49.4% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 219,985 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,836,000 after acquiring an additional 72,760 shares in the last quarter. 98.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on JKHY. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 price target on shares of Jack Henry & Associates in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Jack Henry & Associates from $186.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. William Blair lowered shares of Jack Henry & Associates from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Jack Henry & Associates in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $155.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Jack Henry & Associates from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $186.80.

Jack Henry & Associates Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ JKHY opened at $170.47 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $174.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.89. Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. has a 52-week low of $157.00 and a 52-week high of $189.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 3.11. The company has a market cap of $12.44 billion, a PE ratio of 30.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.61.

Jack Henry & Associates (NASDAQ:JKHY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by ($0.03). Jack Henry & Associates had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 17.83%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jack Henry & Associates Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This is an increase from Jack Henry & Associates’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th. Jack Henry & Associates’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.71%.

Insider Activity at Jack Henry & Associates

In other news, insider David B. Foss sold 18,770 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.32, for a total transaction of $3,215,676.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 138,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,756,087.80. The trade was a 11.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Jack Henry & Associates Profile

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc is a financial technology company, which engages in the provision of technology solutions and payment processing services. It operates through the following segments: Core, Payments, Complementary, and Corporate and Other. The Core segment provides core information processing platforms to banks and credit unions which consist of integrated applications required to process deposit, loan, and general ledger transactions, and maintain centralized customer and member information.