How to buy Perspecta stock | 20.43

Perspecta Inc is an information technology services business based in the US. Perspecta shares (PRSP) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Perspecta employs 14,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$4.5 billion.

How to buy shares in Perspecta

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Perspecta. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: PRSP. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Perspecta reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$20.43, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Perspecta, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Perspecta. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Perspecta's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Perspecta's share price has had significant negative movement.

Its last market close was USD$20.43, which is 19.66% down on its pre-crash value of USD$25.43 and 45.62% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$14.03.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Perspecta shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$543.42 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$721.38.

Perspecta share price

Use our graph to track the performance of PRSP stocks over time.

Perspecta shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-10-14.

Latest market close	USD$20.43
52-week range	USD$14.03 - USD$29.44
50-day moving average	USD$19.8906
200-day moving average	USD$21.2752
Wall St. target price	USD$26
PE ratio	43.2414
Dividend yield	USD$0.28 (1.42%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$0.485

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Is it a good time to buy Perspecta stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Perspecta Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Perspecta price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $20.43 from 2020-10-16

1 week (2020-10-12)	3.29%
1 month (2020-09-18)	4.88%
3 months (2020-07-20)	-8.63%
6 months (2020-04-20)	0.64%

1 year (2019-10-18)	-20.41%
2 years (2018-10-19)	-18.38%
3 years (2017-10-18)	N/A
5 years (2015-10-18)	N/A

Is Perspecta under- or over-valued?

Valuing Perspecta stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Perspecta's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Perspecta's P/E ratio

Perspecta's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 43x. In other words, Perspecta shares trade at around 43x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Perspecta's EBITDA

Perspecta's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$626 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Perspecta's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Perspecta financials

Revenue TTM	USD$4.5 billion
Operating margin TTM	5.71%
Gross profit TTM	USD$1 billion
Return on assets TTM	2.81%
Return on equity TTM	-40.54%
Profit margin	-15.76%
Book value	$8.385
Market capitalisation	USD$3.2 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Perspecta shares

There are currently 1.7 million Perspecta shares held short by investors – that's known as Perspecta's "short interest". This figure is 6.8% down from 1.9 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Perspecta shares can be evaluated.

Perspecta's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Perspecta's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Perspecta shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Perspecta shares traded daily (recently around 1.1 million). Perspecta's SIR currently stands at 1.66. In other words for every 100,000 Perspecta shares traded daily on the market, roughly 1660 shares are currently held short.

However Perspecta's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Perspecta shares, or, against the total number of tradable Perspecta shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Perspecta's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Perspecta shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0145% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Perspecta shares, roughly 15 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Perspecta.

Find out more about how you can short Perspecta stock.

Perspecta share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 12.32% of net profits

Recently Perspecta has paid out, on average, around 12.32% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.42% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Perspecta shareholders could enjoy a 1.42% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Perspecta's case, that would currently equate to about $0.28 per share.

While Perspecta's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Perspecta is investing more in its future growth.

Perspecta's most recent dividend payout was on 15 October 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 25 August 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Perspecta share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Perspecta's shares have ranged in value from as little as $14.03 up to $29.44. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Perspecta's is 1.3337. This would suggest that Perspecta's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Perspecta overview

Perspecta Inc. provides enterprise information technology (IT) services to government customers in the United States federal, state, and local markets. The company develops, modernizes, transforms, and manages customers' enterprise application portfolios enabling a shift of IT spend from maintenance and operations to innovation; and offers analytics and data services, as well as research, engineering, consulting, and technology solutions for government, including cybersecurity, cloud, quantum computing, network configuration, and data analytics capabilities. It also provides cybersecurity solutions that predict attacks, respond to threats, ensure compliance, and protect data, applications, and infrastructure and endpoints. In addition, the company offers cloud computing and infrastructure services that enable customers maximize their private cloud, public cloud, and legacy infrastructure to transform, optimize, and secure their hybrid environments; and digital strategy and transformation services. Further, it provides digital workplace environment to enable government organizations, including secure devices, productivity and collaboration tools, and workplace support; integrated solutions; identification and authentication validation to government organizations through investigative and risk mitigation services, as well as enables to government identify and eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse through integrated data analysis, medical claims review, and investigation services. Additionally, the company enables customers design, manage, and integrate systems throughout the project life cycle. Perspecta Inc. is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Perspecta is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 14.765% of Perspecta shares are held by insiders and 76.888% by institutions.

• How many people work for Perspecta?

  Latest data suggests 14,000 work at Perspecta.

• When does the fiscal year end for Perspecta?

  Perspecta's fiscal year ends in March.

• Where is Perspecta based?

  Perspecta's address is: 15052 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, VA, United States, 20151

• What is Perspecta's CUSIP number?

  Perspecta's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 715347100