Legal & General Group Plc Acquires Shares of 114,341 Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 114,341 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,427,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. EFG International AG bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in shares of Pegasystems by 96.5% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 386.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 710 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $52,000. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Pegasystems

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 1,063 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total value of $41,191.25. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,164 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,105. This trade represents a 47.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kerim Akgonul sold 3,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.99, for a total transaction of $101,970.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 108,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,672,585.51. The trade was a 2.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 4,813 shares of company stock valued at $167,394. Corporate insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Trading Down 1.0%

Pegasystems stock opened at $37.36 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.14 billion, a PE ratio of 21.11 and a beta of 0.89. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.10 and a 1-year high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.08). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 32.21% and a net margin of 18.66%.The firm had revenue of $420.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $427.38 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st were issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on PEGA shares. Loop Capital lowered Pegasystems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. KeyCorp downgraded Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 price objective on Pegasystems and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Zacks Research cut Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “market outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.10.

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.