Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Hits New 1-Year Low Following Insider Selling

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) shares reached a new 52-week low on Wednesday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $32.00 and last traded at $33.7070, with a volume of 139751 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.50.

Specifically, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total transaction of $151,575.75. Following the transaction, the insider owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,570,784.50. The trade was a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PEGA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $62.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Monday, April 20th. KeyCorp set a $60.00 price objective on Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup upped 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. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.70.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $5.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.41 and a beta of 0.88. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.13.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $473.24 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were paid a $0.03 dividend. 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 presently 6.45%.

Institutional Trading of Pegasystems

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new position in Pegasystems during the third quarter valued at $28,000. EFG International AG purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 321.6% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 565 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 96.5% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.