Fifth Third Bancorp Increases Stock Position in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 5,116.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 32,184 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 31,567 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $1,370,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PEGA. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. EFG International AG bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 316.6% in the 4th quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 704 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 386.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 710 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PEGA shares. KeyCorp cut shares of Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $58.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings downgraded Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Loop Capital lowered Pegasystems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $55.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pegasystems has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.10.

Pegasystems Trading Up 3.1%

NASDAQ:PEGA opened at $26.82 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $32.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.70. The firm has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a PE ratio of 15.15 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.10 and a 12-month high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.08). Pegasystems had a net margin of 18.66% and a return on equity of 32.21%. The company had revenue of $420.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.38 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is 6.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pegasystems news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $27,742.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 2,144 shares in the company, valued at $79,306.56. The trade was a 25.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total value of $151,575.75. Following the transaction, the insider owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613. Insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Company Profile

Pegasystems Inc is a software company specializing in customer engagement and digital process automation solutions. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Pegasystems develops enterprise applications designed to help organizations streamline operations, manage customer interactions and automate complex workflows. Its platform supports a wide range of use cases, from sales and marketing optimization to case management and robotic process automation.

The core of Pegasystems’ offering is the Pega Platform, a low-code development environment that enables businesses to build and deploy applications with minimal hand-coding.