Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 312,655 Shares of Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,959,704 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 312,655 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 0.06% of Pegasystems worth $654,514,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PEGA. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,987,291 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $286,769,000 after purchasing an additional 937,216 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Pegasystems by 236.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $217,584,000 after buying an additional 2,836,733 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in Pegasystems by 255.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $157,393,000 after buying an additional 2,089,375 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Pegasystems by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,725,008 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $156,688,000 after buying an additional 280,347 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,468,516 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $141,950,000 after purchasing an additional 181,627 shares during the period. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.81, for a total transaction of $1,971,640.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,123 shares in the company, valued at $4,889,801.63. This represents a 28.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 3,365 shares in the company, valued at approximately $144,291.20. This trade represents a 22.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 52,594 shares of company stock worth $2,344,024 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 49.70% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Price Performance

NASDAQ PEGA opened at $36.20 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $6.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.46 and a beta of 0.88. Pegasystems Inc. has a 52 week low of $34.33 and a 52 week high of $68.10. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.56.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. The business had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $473.24 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. Pegasystems’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PEGA. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Citizens Jmp decreased their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $78.00 to $58.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price (down from $65.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pegasystems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.70.

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.