StockNews.com Upgrades Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PEGA. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Pegasystems from $77.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. DA Davidson increased their target price on Pegasystems from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, William Blair upgraded Pegasystems from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.90.

Pegasystems Price Performance

PEGA stock opened at $91.52 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $77.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.89. Pegasystems has a fifty-two week low of $44.07 and a fifty-two week high of $91.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.80 and a beta of 1.06.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.04. Pegasystems had a net margin of 8.29% and a return on equity of 37.83%. The business had revenue of $325.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $326.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.14 earnings per share. Pegasystems’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Pegasystems will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.13%. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is 8.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pegasystems news, Director Richard H. Jones sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.88, for a total value of $698,800.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 357,058 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,951,213.04. The trade was a 2.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.41, for a total value of $70,410.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 46,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,274,417.05. This trade represents a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,595 shares of company stock valued at $2,454,034. Company insiders own 50.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,369,237 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $347,067,000 after buying an additional 250,273 shares during the last quarter. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC acquired a new position in Pegasystems during the third quarter valued at approximately $436,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in Pegasystems by 110.0% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 25,195 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 13,200 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Pegasystems by 309.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 130,281 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,422,000 after purchasing an additional 98,465 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $9,567,000. 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.