Pegasystems Inc. (PEGA) – What Are Investment Firms Thinking About This Stock?

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the fifteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $45.73.

A number of research firms have recently commented on PEGA. William Blair cut Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Weiss Ratings cut Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday. KeyCorp cut Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. DA Davidson set a $35.00 target price on Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays set a $42.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 22nd.

Pegasystems Stock Down 0.5%

PEGA opened at $33.93 on Tuesday. Pegasystems has a twelve month low of $25.10 and a twelve month high of $63.97. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.07 and a beta of 0.89.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $393.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $421.06 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 35.22% and a net margin of 16.86%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.30 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pegasystems will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 1st were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.45%.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In other Pegasystems news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 1,063 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total transaction of $41,191.25. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,164 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,105. The trade was a 47.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kerim Akgonul sold 7,084 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.22, for a total transaction of $249,498.48. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 97,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,450,080.76. The trade was a 6.74% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 60,756 shares of company stock worth $2,171,155 in the last 90 days. 48.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $286,923,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 44.4% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,048,599 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $87,188,000 after acquiring an additional 630,023 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 1,777,785 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $59,165,000 after purchasing an additional 370,824 shares in the last quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in Pegasystems by 15.6% in the first quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,052,849 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,809,000 after acquiring an additional 141,873 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Pegasystems by 52.9% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,052,205 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,782,000 after purchasing an additional 363,896 shares during the period. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pegasystems Company Profile

Pegasystems Inc is a software company that develops enterprise applications for customer engagement, workflow automation and business process management. Its technology helps organizations manage customer interactions, automate repetitive work, coordinate complex processes and make data-driven decisions across departments and channels.

The company’s portfolio includes Pega Platform, a low-code application development and workflow platform, along with solutions for customer service, sales automation, marketing, decisioning and artificial intelligence.