Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) Receives $70.05 Average PT from Analysts

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $70.05.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price target (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays boosted their price target on Pegasystems from $58.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. DA Davidson upgraded Pegasystems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $85.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Monday, December 29th.

Pegasystems Price Performance

NASDAQ PEGA opened at $56.06 on Wednesday. Pegasystems has a one year low of $29.84 and a one year high of $68.10. The firm has a market cap of $9.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.62 and a beta of 1.08. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.03 and its 200-day moving average is $56.54.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.12. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 43.49% and a net margin of 16.05%.The business had revenue of $381.35 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $351.95 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.39 EPS. Pegasystems’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Pegasystems will post 1.89 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 2nd. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is currently 8.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In related news, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.13, for a total value of $2,615,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 44,800,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,604,262,017.02. This trade represents a 0.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 4,425 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.25, for a total transaction of $297,581.25. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 206 shares in the company, valued at $13,853.50. This trade represents a 95.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 205,301 shares of company stock valued at $12,297,609 in the last three months. 50.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pegasystems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the third quarter valued at $28,000. Spire Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Pegasystems by 274.2% in the 2nd quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 565 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 414 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 321.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 565 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Pegasystems by 902.9% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 682 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 614 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

About Pegasystems

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.