Rifat Kerim Akgonul Sells 4,545 Shares of Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Stock

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total transaction of $151,575.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 107,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. This represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Rifat Kerim Akgonul also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, March 16th, Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 7,594 shares of Pegasystems stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.39, for a total transaction of $329,503.66.

Pegasystems Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:PEGA traded up $0.87 on Wednesday, hitting $34.37. The company had a trading volume of 1,760,551 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,273,314. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.00 and a 1-year high of $68.10. The stock has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $39.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.55.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.22). Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. The company had revenue of $429.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.24 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. Pegasystems’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 1st. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is currently 6.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PEGA. Zacks Research cut shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. KeyCorp set a $60.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. DA Davidson set a $55.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price (down from $65.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.70.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pegasystems

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new stake in Pegasystems during the third quarter worth about $28,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in Pegasystems by 321.6% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 565 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. EFG International AG acquired a new position in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in Pegasystems by 96.5% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

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.