Securian Asset Management Inc. Invests $367,000 in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Securian Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 6,788 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $367,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 3,060 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $213,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 50.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 599 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 139.7% in the 1st quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 549 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 13,756 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $956,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 159.8% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 730 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 449 shares during the period. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on PEGA shares. DA Davidson raised Pegasystems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Pegasystems from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings raised Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Saturday. Barclays increased their target price on Pegasystems from $58.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Pegasystems from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.61.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 11,147 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.19, for a total transaction of $648,643.93. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 119,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,975,118.92. The trade was a 8.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 5,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.08, for a total value of $270,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 72,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,915,662.40. This trade represents a 6.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 167,728 shares of company stock valued at $9,625,920 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 49.70% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Stock Up 1.0%

PEGA stock opened at $66.27 on Friday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 52-week low of $29.84 and a 52-week high of $67.19. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.48 and a beta of 1.08.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $381.35 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $351.95 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 43.49% and a net margin of 16.05%.The business’s revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st were given a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.05%.

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.