Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Increases Holdings in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its position in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 58.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 137,302 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 50,716 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $5,844,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 141,900.0% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,260 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $296,000 after buying an additional 4,257 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 450.4% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,844 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,509 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 248,168 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,253,000 after purchasing an additional 13,075 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 18.0% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 155,783 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,830,000 after purchasing an additional 23,713 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth lifted its stake in Pegasystems by 55.0% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 5,476 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $381,000 after buying an additional 1,943 shares in the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PEGA. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $58.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.30.

Pegasystems Price Performance

NASDAQ:PEGA opened at $31.28 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.82 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12 month low of $28.66 and a 12 month high of $68.10. The business’s 50-day moving average is $32.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.07.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the business earned $0.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Pegasystems news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $27,742.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $79,306.56. This represents a 25.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total value of $151,575.75. Following the transaction, the insider 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

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.