Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) CAO Sells $27,742.50 in Stock

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) CAO Efstathios Kouninis sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total transaction of $27,742.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Pegasystems Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of Pegasystems stock opened at $35.44 on Friday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.00 and a 12-month high of $68.10. The stock has a market cap of $5.92 billion, a PE ratio of 19.05 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a 50-day moving average of $37.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.42.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.22). Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. 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 business posted $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.45%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PEGA. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective (down from $65.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Zacks Research cut shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Citigroup raised their price objective 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, KeyCorp set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.70.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Pegasystems by 236.2% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $217,584,000 after acquiring an additional 2,836,733 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Pegasystems by 255.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $157,393,000 after acquiring an additional 2,089,375 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Pegasystems by 357.6% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,586,793 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $91,241,000 after acquiring an additional 1,239,998 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Pegasystems in the 1st quarter worth approximately $47,817,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in Pegasystems by 271.7% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,111,736 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $63,925,000 after acquiring an additional 812,634 shares during the period. 46.89% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.