Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Should You Sell?

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)’s share price hit a new 52-week low on Monday . The company traded as low as $34.18 and last traded at $34.5820, with a volume of 360157 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $35.97.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PEGA has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Pegasystems from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. DA Davidson set a $55.00 price target on Pegasystems and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $62.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Citizens Jmp reduced their price objective on Pegasystems from $78.00 to $58.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.70.

Pegasystems Trading Down 4.8%

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.19. The company has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.42 and a beta of 0.88.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.22). The company had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.24 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 30.05% and a net margin of 20.04%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is 6.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.81, for a total transaction of $1,971,640.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 109,123 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,889,801.63. The trade was a 28.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 7,594 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.39, for a total transaction of $329,503.66. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,834,904.31. The trade was a 6.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 52,594 shares of company stock worth $2,344,024 in the last three months. 48.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PEGA. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 141,900.0% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,260 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $296,000 after buying an additional 4,257 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 450.4% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,844 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $128,000 after buying an additional 1,509 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 248,168 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,253,000 after buying an additional 13,075 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 18.0% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 155,783 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,830,000 after acquiring an additional 23,713 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 55.0% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 5,476 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $381,000 after acquiring an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. 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.