Pegasystems Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.02 (NASDAQ:PEGA)

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.015 per share by the technology company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st.

Pegasystems has a payout ratio of 3.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Pegasystems to earn $2.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 5.6%.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of PEGA opened at $69.52 on Friday. Pegasystems has a 12 month low of $54.55 and a 12 month high of $113.67. The stock has a market cap of $5.97 billion, a PE ratio of 68.83 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $87.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.66.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The technology company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.20). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 32.09% and a net margin of 6.63%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Pegasystems will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pegasystems news, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 31,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.38, for a total value of $2,437,470.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 17,308,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,339,353,860.68. This represents a 0.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.31, for a total value of $156,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 13,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,077,937.15. This trade represents a 12.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 81,543 shares of company stock worth $6,253,614 over the last quarter. 50.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on PEGA shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup increased their price target on Pegasystems from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $118.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays reduced their target price on Pegasystems from $103.00 to $97.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $99.36.

About Pegasystems

Pegasystems Inc develops, markets, licenses, hosts, and supports enterprise software in the United States, rest of the Americas, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company provides Pega Infinity, a software portfolio comprising of Pega Customer Decision Hub, a real-time AI-powered decision engine to enhance customer acquisition and experiences across inbound, outbound, and paid media channels; Pega Customer Service to anticipate customer needs, connect customers to people and systems, and automate customer interactions to evolve the customer service experience, as well as to allow enterprises to deliver interactions across channels and enhance employee productivity; and Pega Platform, an intelligent automation software for increasing efficiency of clients’ processes and workflows.