Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Stock Price Up 8.1% – Still a Buy?

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)’s stock price traded up 8.1% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $28.87 and last traded at $28.9960. Approximately 467,104 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 2,404,354 shares. The stock had previously closed at $26.82.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on PEGA shares. Citizens Jmp downgraded Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Zacks Research downgraded Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. KeyCorp lowered Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday. Finally, William Blair downgraded Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.10.

Pegasystems Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.61 and a beta of 0.87.

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). The firm had revenue of $420.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $427.38 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 18.66% and a return on equity of 32.21%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.79 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is 6.78%.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 236.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $217,584,000 after acquiring an additional 2,836,733 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 255.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $157,393,000 after acquiring an additional 2,089,375 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the first quarter worth $47,817,000. Capital Impact Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter worth $45,705,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 44.4% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,048,599 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $87,188,000 after acquiring an additional 630,023 shares during the period. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.