Teacher Retirement System of Texas Boosts Stake in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its position in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 151.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,516,532 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 913,349 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Pegasystems were worth $82,090,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 449 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Pegasystems in the 1st quarter valued at about $57,000. Finally, Vestcor Inc purchased a new stake in Pegasystems in the 1st quarter valued at about $63,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Trading Up 1.0%

PEGA opened at $66.27 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $56.49 and a 200 day moving average of $51.79. The company has a market cap of $11.25 billion, a PE ratio of 44.48 and a beta of 1.08. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12 month low of $29.84 and a 12 month high of $67.19.

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

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm 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. 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 2,544 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.00, for a total value of $150,096.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Larry Weber sold 2,636 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.98, for a total transaction of $150,199.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 10,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $605,811.36. The trade was a 19.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 167,146 shares of company stock worth $9,591,204 in the last 90 days. 49.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on PEGA shares. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.61.

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.