First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 630,023 Shares of Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 44.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,048,599 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 630,023 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $87,188,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 4th quarter worth $31,905,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,170,377 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $69,895,000 after buying an additional 33,643 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 117.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 814,062 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $34,427,000 after buying an additional 439,417 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 259.7% in the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 411,262 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $26,144,000 after acquiring an additional 296,916 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 58.6% in the 1st quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 137,302 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,844,000 after acquiring an additional 50,716 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total transaction of $151,575.75. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.75, for a total transaction of $26,062.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $100,566.50. This represents a 20.58% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 6,795 shares of company stock worth $229,613. Corporate insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on PEGA. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 price target on Pegasystems and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. William Blair lowered Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings cut Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 target price (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup lowered Pegasystems from a “market outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.10.

Pegasystems Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of PEGA opened at $26.82 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.15 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.10 and a 12-month high of $68.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $32.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.70.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last posted its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $420.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $427.38 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.45%.

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.