Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Trading Down 4.5% – Should You Sell?

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) shares dropped 4.5% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $31.63 and last traded at $31.5720. Approximately 80,016 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 97% from the average daily volume of 2,408,641 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.07.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PEGA. DA Davidson set a $32.00 price objective on Pegasystems and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Loop Capital cut shares of Pegasystems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $55.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. William Blair downgraded shares of Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $58.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pegasystems has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.10.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $31.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.84 and a beta of 0.87.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.08). Pegasystems had a net margin of 18.66% and a return on equity of 32.21%. The business had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.38 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 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 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Pegasystems news, CAO Efstathios A. 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 value of $27,742.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $79,306.56. This represents a 25.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total transaction of $151,575.75. Following the sale, the insider owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,570,784.50. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613 in the last ninety days. 48.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pegasystems

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pegasystems during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. EFG International AG acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in Pegasystems by 96.5% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the period. Signature Equity Partners LLC increased its position in Pegasystems by 302.2% during the first quarter. Signature Equity Partners LLC now owns 929 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter worth about $41,000. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.