The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Makes New $2.01 Million Investment in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new stake in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 67,114 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,011,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ranger Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,168,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter valued at about $224,000. Globeflex Capital L P acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter valued at about $147,000. Commerce Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the second quarter worth approximately $778,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Pegasystems during the second quarter worth approximately $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

Shares of PEGA stock opened at $37.32 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.42. Pegasystems Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.10 and a twelve month high of $68.10. The company has a market capitalization of $6.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.08 and a beta of 0.89.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.08). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 32.21% and a net margin of 18.66%.The company had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $427.38 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEGA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $39.00 target price (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Weiss Ratings lowered Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 price objective on Pegasystems and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 3,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.99, for a total value of $101,970.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 108,049 shares in the company, valued at $3,672,585.51. This trade represents a 2.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 48.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.