Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Shares Up 9.6% – Time to Buy?

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)’s share price was up 9.6% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $42.34 and last traded at $41.5890. Approximately 1,041,151 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 48% from the average daily volume of 2,008,557 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.93.

Pegasystems News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Pegasystems this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Barclays upgraded PEGA, citing accelerating Pega Cloud adoption and strong AI positioning after the recent selloff — the note frames current weakness as a buying opportunity. Barclays upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlighting Pegasystems’ strong 2025 results, legal relief and an enlarged buyback has shifted the investment narrative toward capital returns plus improving fundamentals. Strong 2025 results & buyback
• Positive Sentiment: Management reiterated growth ambitions (targeting $2B revenue) and emphasized “predictable AI” and cloud migration as the path to mid-teens ACV/revenue growth — a roadmap investors view as supportive of durable recurring revenue. $2B revenue target
• Positive Sentiment: Pegasystems is targeting ~15% ACV and revenue growth in 2026 as Pega Cloud adoption accelerates — a concrete growth guide that supports multiple expansion if execution continues. 2026 growth targets
• Positive Sentiment: Rosenblatt reaffirmed a buy rating with a $62 target, signaling at least some analyst conviction behind the recovery narrative. Rosenblatt reaffirmation
• Positive Sentiment: Intraday market commentary noted PEGA “making a mark” on Nasdaq as digital solutions momentum attracts trader interest. Nasdaq momentum
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and commentary are reassessing valuation after recent share‑price weakness — useful context for longer‑term investors but not an immediate catalyst. Valuation assessment
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparative coverage contrasts PEGA with peers (e.g., Trend Micro) — background reading for investors sizing competitive risk. Peer contrast
• Negative Sentiment: Wedbush cut its price target from $75 to $60 (still an outperform), reducing upside projection and signaling more conservative near‑term expectations. Wedbush PT cut
• Negative Sentiment: Citizens Jmp lowered its target from $78 to $58, trimming analyst upside and reflecting continued analyst divergence on fair value. Citizens Jmp PT cut
• Negative Sentiment: Pegasystems agreed to pay $7M to resolve investors’ trade‑secret claims — a modest one‑time hit but a headline negative that briefly pressures sentiment. Legal settlement

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PEGA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush cut their target price on Pegasystems from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $73.00 target price (down previously from $81.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citizens Jmp reduced their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $78.00 to $58.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.95.

Pegasystems Price Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of $53.64 and a 200 day moving average of $55.70. The company has a market cap of $7.41 billion, a PE ratio of 20.54 and a beta of 1.07.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The technology company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 38.86% and a net margin of 22.54%.The business had revenue of $504.32 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $494.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.80 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Pegasystems has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.750-2.750 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 16th. Investors of record on Friday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is 5.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 14,405 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.87, for a total value of $833,617.35. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 131,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,616,907.27. This trade represents a 9.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.02, for a total transaction of $2,205,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 44,394,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,176,216,135.08. This represents a 0.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 108,405 shares of company stock valued at $5,896,127. Company insiders own 49.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Pegasystems by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,987,291 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $286,769,000 after purchasing an additional 937,216 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Pegasystems by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,927,576 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $110,778,000 after acquiring an additional 25,598 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,515,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 100.9% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 196,065 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,492,000 after acquiring an additional 98,468 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 60.3% during the second quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 240,225 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,003,000 after purchasing an additional 90,404 shares during the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Pegasystems Company Profile

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.