Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $63.70.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PEGA. DA Davidson set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective (down from $65.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Citizens Jmp reduced their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $78.00 to $58.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 12th.

Pegasystems Stock Down 4.1%

Pegasystems stock opened at $35.11 on Friday. Pegasystems has a 52-week low of $32.00 and a 52-week high of $68.10. The company’s 50 day moving average is $37.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.57. The firm has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a PE ratio of 18.88 and a beta of 0.86.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.22). Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. The firm had revenue of $429.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.24 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. Pegasystems’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Pegasystems will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 1st were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total transaction of $27,742.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares in the company, valued at $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.81, for a total transaction of $1,971,640.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 109,123 shares in the company, valued at $4,889,801.63. This represents a 28.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 58,639 shares of company stock worth $2,549,404 in the last ninety days. 48.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pegasystems

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position 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 worth $110,778,000 after purchasing an additional 25,598 shares during the last quarter. Intrinsic Edge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Pegasystems during the 3rd quarter worth $10,940,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Pegasystems by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,170,377 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $69,895,000 after purchasing an additional 33,643 shares during the last quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 57.8% in the third quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC now owns 68,566 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,943,000 after acquiring an additional 25,121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 56.1% in the third quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 79,619 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,578,000 after acquiring an additional 28,629 shares in the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.