Fisher Asset Management LLC Grows Position in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,170,377 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 33,643 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $69,895,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. purchased a new position in Pegasystems in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in Pegasystems by 96.5% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the period. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd grew its stake in Pegasystems by 316.6% during the 4th quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 704 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of PEGA stock opened at $34.35 on Tuesday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.00 and a 52-week high of $68.10. The stock has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a PE ratio of 18.47 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.74.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.22). The company had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.24 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 30.05% and a net margin of 20.04%.The firm’s revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.88, for a total transaction of $42,880.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 3,365 shares in the company, valued at approximately $144,291.20. This trade represents a 22.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 7,594 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.39, for a total transaction of $329,503.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,834,904.31. The trade was a 6.38% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 57,139 shares of company stock valued at $2,495,599 in the last three months. 48.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on PEGA shares. Citizens Jmp cut their price objective on Pegasystems from $78.00 to $58.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 12th. KeyCorp set a $60.00 target price on Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. DA Davidson set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.70.

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.