Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.02

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of 0.015 per share by the technology company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.08%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st.

Pegasystems has a dividend payout ratio of 3.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Pegasystems to earn $2.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 5.6%.

Pegasystems Trading Up 3.7 %

PEGA traded up $2.68 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $75.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 510,854 shares, compared to its average volume of 970,078. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $89.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $85.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.49 billion, a PE ratio of 74.82 and a beta of 1.25. Pegasystems has a fifty-two week low of $54.55 and a fifty-two week high of $113.67.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The technology company reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.20). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 32.09% and a net margin of 6.63%. Research analysts expect that Pegasystems will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PEGA. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $103.00 to $97.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com cut Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $118.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.36.

Insider Activity

In other Pegasystems news, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 31,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.38, for a total value of $2,437,470.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 17,308,786 shares in the company, valued at $1,339,353,860.68. This trade represents a 0.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Leon Trefler sold 752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.83, for a total transaction of $70,560.16. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,973 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,563,006.59. This represents a 1.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 81,543 shares of company stock valued at $6,253,614. 50.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.