Rifat Kerim Akgonul Sells 3,000 Shares of Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Stock

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.99, for a total transaction of $101,970.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 108,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,672,585.51. This represents a 2.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Pegasystems Stock Up 6.1%

NASDAQ PEGA opened at $35.89 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.28 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.10 and a 12-month high of $68.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $31.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.53.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced 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 business had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $427.38 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.78%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pegasystems

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter valued at $286,923,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 236.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $217,584,000 after buying an additional 2,836,733 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 2,809.9% during 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 buying an additional 3,055,609 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted 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 valued at $186,790,000 after buying an additional 402,763 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in Pegasystems by 255.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on PEGA shares. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 target price on Pegasystems and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. DA Davidson set a $32.00 price target on Pegasystems and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 price target (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pegasystems presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.10.

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.