Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Lowered to “Buy” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday.

PEGA has been the subject of several other research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 target price (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $58.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Pegasystems from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.61.

Pegasystems Price Performance

NASDAQ PEGA opened at $54.42 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $58.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of 36.52 and a beta of 1.09. Pegasystems has a fifty-two week low of $29.84 and a fifty-two week high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The technology company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.12. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 43.49% and a net margin of 16.05%.The company had revenue of $381.35 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $351.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Pegasystems will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 1st were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.05%.

Insider Activity

In other Pegasystems news, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 45,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.73, for a total transaction of $2,552,850.00. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 44,979,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,551,679,319.72. The trade was a 0.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Leon Trefler sold 14,865 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.40, for a total value of $942,441.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 118,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,531,856.60. The trade was a 11.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 203,895 shares of company stock worth $12,179,202. 49.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Spire Wealth Management boosted its position in Pegasystems by 274.2% during the second quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 565 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 414 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in Pegasystems by 321.6% during 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 period. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, MAI Capital Management raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 124.5% in the 2nd quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 696 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

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.