Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Director Sells 1,000 Shares of Stock

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) Director Dianne Ledingham sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.00, for a total transaction of $38,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 39,280 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,492,640. This trade represents a 2.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of PEGA stock traded down $0.76 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $36.08. The stock had a trading volume of 2,559,849 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,385,550. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.93 billion, a PE ratio of 20.38 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.91. Pegasystems Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.10 and a twelve month high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.08). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 32.21% and a net margin of 18.66%.The firm had revenue of $420.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $427.38 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. Pegasystems’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 1st will be issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is 6.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on PEGA. DA Davidson set a $32.00 target price on Pegasystems and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Citizens Jmp lowered Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, William Blair lowered shares of Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.40.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $286,923,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Pegasystems during the first quarter worth approximately $47,817,000. Ranger Investment Management L.P. acquired a new position in Pegasystems in the second quarter worth approximately $26,168,000. Capital Impact Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter valued at $45,705,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Pegasystems during the 2nd quarter valued at $19,382,000. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Pegasystems

Pegasystems Inc develops enterprise software for customer engagement, workflow automation and business process management. Its solutions help organizations manage customer service, sales, marketing, operations and back-office processes across digital and traditional channels.

The company’s product portfolio includes Pega Platform, a low-code application development and automation platform; Pega Customer Service and Pega Sales; Pega Customer Decision Hub for real-time, personalized customer engagement; and tools for case management, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence.