Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA Stock: VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Boosts Position

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al raised its holdings in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 64.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 97,350 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 38,300 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $3,240,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $286,923,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Pegasystems by 44.4% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,048,599 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $87,188,000 after buying an additional 630,023 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 26.4% in the third quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 1,777,785 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $59,165,000 after buying an additional 370,824 shares during the last quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 15.6% in the first quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,052,849 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $44,809,000 after buying an additional 141,873 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 52.9% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,052,205 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $44,782,000 after buying an additional 363,896 shares during the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on PEGA shares. William Blair downgraded shares of Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp lowered shares of Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. UBS Group downgraded shares of Pegasystems to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Barclays set a $42.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 39,627 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.77, for a total transaction of $1,417,457.79. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 95,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,406,198.25. This represents a 29.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Larry Weber sold 2,974 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.71, for a total transaction of $100,253.54. Following the sale, the director directly owned 11,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $388,541.46. This represents a 20.51% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 63,730 shares of company stock worth $2,271,409. Corporate insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of PEGA opened at $34.58 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $35.31 and a 200-day moving average of $37.16. Pegasystems Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.10 and a 52 week high of $63.97. The firm has a market cap of $5.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.48 and a beta of 0.89.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.10). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 35.22% and a net margin of 16.86%. The business had revenue of $393.36 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $421.06 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.30 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st were given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.45%.

Pegasystems Company Profile

Pegasystems Inc is a software company that develops enterprise applications for customer engagement, workflow automation and business process management. Its technology helps organizations manage customer interactions, automate repetitive work, coordinate complex processes and make data-driven decisions across departments and channels.

The company’s portfolio includes Pega Platform, a low-code application development and workflow platform, along with solutions for customer service, sales automation, marketing, decisioning and artificial intelligence.