Short Interest in Bentley Systems, Incorporated (NASDAQ:BSY) Expands By 5.1%

Bentley Systems, Incorporated (NASDAQ:BSY) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,970,000 shares, a growth of 5.1% from the December 15th total of 5,680,000 shares. Approximately 4.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 899,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BSY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Bentley Systems from $65.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $62.00 price objective on shares of Bentley Systems in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Bentley Systems in a research note on Monday, December 9th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price objective on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.29.

Bentley Systems Stock Performance

Shares of BSY opened at $46.18 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.52. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $47.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.04. Bentley Systems has a 52 week low of $43.82 and a 52 week high of $57.19.

Bentley Systems (NASDAQ:BSY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24. The firm had revenue of $335.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $340.36 million. Bentley Systems had a return on equity of 29.50% and a net margin of 27.73%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.18 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Bentley Systems will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bentley Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Bentley Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bentley Systems news, Director Barry J. Bentley sold 50,000 shares of Bentley Systems stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.95, for a total transaction of $2,447,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,048,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $589,761,103.25. The trade was a 0.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Keith A. Bentley sold 69,573 shares of Bentley Systems stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.67, for a total value of $3,246,971.91. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,705,028 shares in the company, valued at $779,623,656.76. The trade was a 0.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 21.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bentley Systems

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BSY. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Bentley Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Bentley Systems by 21.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 757,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,372,000 after acquiring an additional 132,311 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its stake in Bentley Systems by 21.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 15,944 shares of the company’s stock valued at $787,000 after purchasing an additional 2,774 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL purchased a new position in Bentley Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $691,000. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new position in Bentley Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $606,000. 44.16% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Bentley Systems Company Profile

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, provides infrastructure engineering software solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company offers open modeling engineering applications, such as MicroStation, OpenBridge, OpenBuildings, OpenCities, OpenComms, OpenFlows, OpenPlant, OpenRail, OpenRoads, OpenSite, OpenTower, OpenTunnel, OpenUtilities, and OpenWindowPower; and open simulation engineering applications, including ADINA, AutoPIPE, CUBE, DYNAMEQ, EMME, LEGION, Power Line Systems, RAM, SACS, SPIDA, and STAAD; and geoprofessional applications for modeling and simulation of near and deep subsurface conditions, including AGS, Central, GeoStudio, Imago, Leapfrog, MX Deposit, Oasis montaj, OpenGround, and PLAXIS.