Royal Bank of Canada Acquires 70,246 Shares of Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 22.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 381,787 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 70,246 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $16,249,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PEGA. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 2,836,733 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Pegasystems by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,127,771 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $186,790,000 after purchasing an additional 402,763 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Pegasystems by 255.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $157,393,000 after buying an additional 2,089,375 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Pegasystems by 28.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,721,958 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $162,555,000 after buying an additional 599,790 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,529,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $151,094,000 after buying an additional 61,251 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Trading Down 0.4%

PEGA stock opened at $31.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.89 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $31.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.88. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.10 and a 12-month high of $68.10.

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

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 was Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PEGA has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Zacks Research cut Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Citigroup lowered Pegasystems from a “market outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. William Blair downgraded Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $32.00 price objective on Pegasystems and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.10.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In other news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $27,742.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total value of $151,575.75. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 107,070 shares in the company, valued at $3,570,784.50. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613. Company insiders own 48.40% 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.