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

Shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $93.91.

PEGA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $118.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Tuesday. Wedbush boosted their price target on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 528 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.00, for a total value of $43,824.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.00, for a total value of $188,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,547,804. The trade was a 10.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,914 shares of company stock worth $2,414,935 in the last three months. 50.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pegasystems

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the second quarter valued at $67,968,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Pegasystems by 3.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 819,282 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $59,895,000 after purchasing an additional 25,901 shares during the last quarter. Luxor Capital Group LP grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 7.9% in 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 in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 104.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 554,777 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $33,381,000 after buying an additional 283,508 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 484,296 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,397,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

NASDAQ PEGA opened at $93.77 on Wednesday. Pegasystems has a one year low of $45.36 and a one year high of $97.94. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $93.01 and a 200 day moving average of $77.12. The company has a market capitalization of $8.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.45 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.76%.

About Pegasystems

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.