Franklin Resources Inc. Grows Stake in CGI Inc. (NYSE:GIB)

Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of CGI Inc. (NYSE:GIB) (TSE:GIB.A) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 134,787 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,075 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of CGI worth $14,729,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CGI by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 998,470 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $115,844,000 after buying an additional 79,362 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in CGI by 182.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 476,758 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,808,000 after acquiring an additional 308,040 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CGI by 47.6% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,163 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in shares of CGI by 19.2% in the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,784 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,574,000 after purchasing an additional 6,403 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of CGI by 21.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 96,516 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,118,000 after purchasing an additional 16,844 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GIB. UBS Group upped their target price on CGI from $118.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $192.00 price objective on shares of CGI in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on CGI from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CGI has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $156.75.

CGI Price Performance

GIB stock opened at $97.23 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $108.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $110.86. CGI Inc. has a 52-week low of $92.85 and a 52-week high of $122.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

CGI (NYSE:GIB) (TSE:GIB.A) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $1.41 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.41. CGI had a return on equity of 19.32% and a net margin of 11.72%. Equities research analysts expect that CGI Inc. will post 5.79 EPS for the current year.

CGI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.1039 per share. This represents a $0.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. CGI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.41%.

CGI Company Profile

CGI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology (IT) and business process services. Its services include the business and strategic IT consulting, systems integration, and software solutions. The company also provides application development, modernization and maintenance, holistic enterprise digitization, automation, hybrid and cloud management, and business process services; intellectual property-based solutions; business consulting; managed IT services; and IT infrastructure services.