Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.90.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PEGA. Loop Capital upgraded Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $84.00 in a report on Thursday, August 1st. JMP Securities raised Pegasystems from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. William Blair upgraded Pegasystems from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In other news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 528 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.00, for a total transaction of $43,824.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.41, for a total transaction of $70,410.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 46,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,274,417.05. The trade was a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,595 shares of company stock worth $2,454,034 in the last 90 days. 50.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PEGA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,369,237 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $347,067,000 after acquiring an additional 250,273 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Pegasystems during the second quarter valued at approximately $67,968,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 819,282 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $59,895,000 after buying an additional 25,901 shares in the last quarter. Luxor Capital Group LP lifted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. Luxor Capital Group LP now owns 683,939 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,399,000 after buying an additional 49,861 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Pegasystems by 104.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 554,777 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $33,381,000 after buying an additional 283,508 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Trading Up 4.2 %

Shares of Pegasystems stock opened at $95.33 on Tuesday. Pegasystems has a 1 year low of $44.07 and a 1 year high of $95.91. The company has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.58 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $77.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $68.13.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $325.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $326.16 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 8.29% and a return on equity of 37.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Pegasystems will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.13%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.76%.

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.