Insider Selling: Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) CAO Sells 332 Shares of Stock

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) CAO Efstathios Kouninis sold 332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.62, for a total value of $19,129.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,520.24. This represents a 56.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PEGA opened at $57.01 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $54.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $46.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.94 and a beta of 1.08. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1 year low of $29.84 and a 1 year high of $60.96.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $384.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $345.07 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 42.42% and a net margin of 13.14%.Pegasystems’s revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.26 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.89 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 1st were given a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 1st. This is a positive change from Pegasystems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.34%.

Institutional Trading of Pegasystems

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Pegasystems by 86.3% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,050,075 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $219,231,000 after buying an additional 1,875,896 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 236.2% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $217,584,000 after purchasing an additional 2,836,733 shares in the last quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 76.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,542,716 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $191,767,000 after purchasing an additional 1,536,726 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 255.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $157,393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,089,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Pegasystems by 34.0% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,444,661 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $132,329,000 after acquiring an additional 620,878 shares during the period. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PEGA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Pegasystems from $55.00 to $62.50 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. DA Davidson raised their price target on Pegasystems from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Loop Capital raised their price target on Pegasystems from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Pegasystems from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on Pegasystems from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.83.

Pegasystems Company Profile

Pegasystems Inc develops, markets, licenses, hosts, and supports enterprise software in the United States, rest of the Americas, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company provides Pega Infinity, a software portfolio comprising of Pega Customer Decision Hub, a real-time AI-powered decision engine to enhance customer acquisition and experiences across inbound, outbound, and paid media channels; Pega Customer Service to anticipate customer needs, connect customers to people and systems, and automate customer interactions to evolve the customer service experience, as well as to allow enterprises to deliver interactions across channels and enhance employee productivity; and Pega Platform, an intelligent automation software for increasing efficiency of clients’ processes and workflows.