Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Buys 17,997 Shares of Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 24.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 91,501 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,997 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned 0.05% of Pegasystems worth $3,894,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PEGA. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. EFG International AG purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 96.5% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 316.6% in the fourth quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 704 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in Pegasystems by 386.3% during the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 710 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In related news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total transaction of $151,575.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. The trade was a 4.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total transaction of $27,742.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $79,306.56. This represents a 25.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 6,795 shares of company stock worth $229,613. Insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.30.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

Shares of Pegasystems stock opened at $32.16 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.29 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $32.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.80. Pegasystems Inc. has a one year low of $28.66 and a one year high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.22). The company had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $473.24 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is 6.45%.

About Pegasystems

Pegasystems Inc is a software company specializing in customer engagement and digital process automation solutions. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Pegasystems develops enterprise applications designed to help organizations streamline operations, manage customer interactions and automate complex workflows. Its platform supports a wide range of use cases, from sales and marketing optimization to case management and robotic process automation.

The core of Pegasystems’ offering is the Pega Platform, a low-code development environment that enables businesses to build and deploy applications with minimal hand-coding.