Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Shares Down 6.8% – Here’s What Happened

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) shares were down 6.8% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $34.88 and last traded at $34.8360. Approximately 650,110 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 2,372,470 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.36.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PEGA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “market outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Zacks Research lowered Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. William Blair downgraded Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 price objective on Pegasystems and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $39.00 price objective (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.10.

Pegasystems Stock Up 0.5%

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.15. The stock has a market cap of $5.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.89 and a beta of 0.89.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $427.38 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. Pegasystems’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st were issued 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, July 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is 6.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Kerim Akgonul sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.99, for a total transaction of $101,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 108,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,672,585.51. This represents a 2.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Efstathios Kouninis sold 1,063 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total transaction of $41,191.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,164 shares in the company, valued at $45,105. This represents a 47.73% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 4,813 shares of company stock valued at $167,394 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Pegasystems in the second quarter worth $286,923,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 2,809.9% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,164,352 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $94,836,000 after acquiring an additional 3,055,609 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Pegasystems by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,127,771 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $186,790,000 after purchasing an additional 402,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in Pegasystems by 255.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $157,393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,089,375 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

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.