Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Stock Price Down 4.5% – Here’s What Happened

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) shares dropped 4.5% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $31.63 and last traded at $31.5720. Approximately 80,016 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 97% from the average session volume of 2,408,641 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.07.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut Pegasystems from a “market outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 price objective on Pegasystems and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Citizens Jmp downgraded Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp lowered Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $32.00 price target on Pegasystems and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.10.

Pegasystems Stock Down 4.5%

The business’s 50 day moving average is $31.29 and its 200-day moving average is $37.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.84 and a beta of 0.87.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.38 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 18.66% and a return on equity of 32.21%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were paid a $0.03 dividend. 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 (DPR) is 6.78%.

Insider Transactions at Pegasystems

In other Pegasystems news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was 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 in the company, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.75, for a total value of $26,062.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $100,566.50. The trade was a 20.58% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 6,795 shares of company stock worth $229,613. Company insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PEGA. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 141,900.0% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,260 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $296,000 after buying an additional 4,257 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 450.4% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,844 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 248,168 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,253,000 after acquiring an additional 13,075 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in Pegasystems by 18.0% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 155,783 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,830,000 after acquiring an additional 23,713 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in Pegasystems by 55.0% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 5,476 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $381,000 after acquiring an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.