Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $61.8333.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $55.00 to $62.50 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price target on Pegasystems from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In other news, Director Larry Weber sold 2,636 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.98, for a total value of $150,199.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 10,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $605,811.36. This represents a 19.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 11,147 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.19, for a total transaction of $648,643.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 119,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,975,118.92. This trade represents a 8.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 181,607 shares of company stock worth $10,255,134 over the last three months. 49.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 86.3% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,050,075 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $219,231,000 after buying an additional 1,875,896 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 236.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $217,584,000 after buying an additional 2,836,733 shares during the period. Bares Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 76.6% in the second quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,542,716 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $191,767,000 after buying an additional 1,536,726 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 255.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $157,393,000 after buying an additional 2,089,375 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 34.0% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,444,661 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $132,329,000 after buying an additional 620,878 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Stock Up 0.6%

NASDAQ PEGA opened at $58.66 on Monday. Pegasystems has a 12-month low of $29.84 and a 12-month high of $61.00. The company has a market capitalization of $10.04 billion, a PE ratio of 50.35 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $55.76 and its 200-day moving average is $48.50.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.04. Pegasystems had a net margin of 13.14% and a return on equity of 42.42%. The business had revenue of $384.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $345.07 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Pegasystems will post 1.89 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is 10.34%.

Pegasystems Company Profile

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.