Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA Shares Bought by Wedbush Fund Advisers LLC

Wedbush Fund Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 45.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 394,797 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 123,045 shares during the period. Pegasystems accounts for 1.0% of Wedbush Fund Advisers LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Wedbush Fund Advisers LLC’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $11,832,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. EFG International AG purchased a new position in Pegasystems in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in Pegasystems by 96.5% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its position in Pegasystems by 386.3% in the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 710 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In other news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $27,742.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 2,250 shares of company stock valued at $78,038 in the last ninety days. 48.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Citigroup cut Pegasystems from a “market outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $58.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. DA Davidson set a $32.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 price target (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Pegasystems has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.10.

Pegasystems Stock Down 0.8%

PEGA opened at $34.00 on Wednesday. Pegasystems Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.10 and a twelve month high of $68.10. The company has a market cap of $5.59 billion, a PE ratio of 19.21 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $31.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.59.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. Pegasystems’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.78%.

Pegasystems 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.