BlackRock Inc. Makes New Investment in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 9,573,688 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $286,923,000. BlackRock Inc. owned 0.06% of Pegasystems as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Pegasystems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. EFG International AG acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Signature Equity Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Pegasystems by 302.2% during the first quarter. Signature Equity Partners LLC now owns 929 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the second quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PEGA opened at $33.83 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.56 billion, a PE ratio of 19.11 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.10 and a fifty-two week high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.08). Pegasystems had a net margin of 18.66% and a return on equity of 32.21%. The business had revenue of $420.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.38 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on PEGA shares. KeyCorp cut Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 price objective on Pegasystems and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 price target (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Loop Capital downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.10.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In related news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.99, for a total value of $101,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 108,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,672,585.51. The trade was a 2.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $27,742.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $79,306.56. The trade was a 25.92% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 5,250 shares of company stock worth $180,008 over the last quarter. 48.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.