Handelsbanken Fonder AB Sells 15,300 Shares of Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Handelsbanken Fonder AB trimmed its holdings in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 37.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 25,088 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 15,300 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $1,498,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted 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 purchasing an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 316.6% in the 4th quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 704 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total value of $151,575.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.81, for a total value of $1,971,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,123 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,889,801.63. This trade represents a 28.74% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 57,139 shares of company stock valued at $2,495,599. 48.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price (down from $65.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Pegasystems from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Citigroup increased their target price on Pegasystems from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Citizens Jmp cut their target price on Pegasystems from $78.00 to $58.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.70.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of Pegasystems stock opened at $34.35 on Tuesday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.00 and a 1 year high of $68.10. The firm has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a PE ratio of 18.47 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.74.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $473.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 1st were issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.45%.

Pegasystems 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.