Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Raises Stake in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 10.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 230,391 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,124 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $13,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PEGA. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 321.6% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 565 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 96.5% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 316.6% during the fourth quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 704 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Pegasystems

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.81, for a total value of $1,971,640.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 109,123 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,889,801.63. The trade was a 28.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.88, for a total transaction of $42,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 3,365 shares in the company, valued at $144,291.20. This trade represents a 22.91% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,639 shares of company stock valued at $2,549,404. 48.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on PEGA shares. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price target (down from $65.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.70.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

PEGA stock opened at $34.71 on Friday. Pegasystems Inc. has a one year low of $32.00 and a one year high of $68.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $37.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.34. The company has a market capitalization of $5.80 billion, a PE ratio of 18.66 and a beta of 0.86.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.22). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 30.05% and a net margin of 20.04%.The company had revenue of $429.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $473.24 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. Pegasystems’s quarterly revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is 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.