Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Lowered to “Strong Sell” Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report report published on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

PEGA has been the topic of several other reports. DA Davidson set a $32.00 target price on Pegasystems and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 target price on Pegasystems and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $39.00 price target (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $58.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, William Blair cut shares of Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.10.

Pegasystems Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:PEGA opened at $33.83 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.56 billion, a PE ratio of 19.11 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $31.22 and a 200-day moving average of $36.56. Pegasystems has a 52 week low of $25.10 and a 52 week high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.38 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 32.21% and a net margin of 18.66%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Pegasystems will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In other news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.99, for a total transaction of $101,970.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 108,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,672,585.51. This trade represents a 2.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $100,566.50. This trade represents a 20.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 5,250 shares of company stock valued at $180,008. Company insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pegasystems

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. EFG International AG bought a new stake in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in Pegasystems by 96.5% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the period. Signature Equity Partners LLC lifted its position in Pegasystems by 302.2% in the first quarter. Signature Equity Partners LLC now owns 929 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 698 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new position in Pegasystems during the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Pegasystems

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.