Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Hits New 12-Month Low – Should You Sell?

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $31.35 and last traded at $32.3730, with a volume of 81168 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $32.35.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PEGA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Zacks Research cut shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.30.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $5.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.18 and a beta of 0.86. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.91.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $429.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $473.24 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. Pegasystems’s revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is presently 6.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,570,784.50. This represents a 4.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total transaction of $27,742.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 2,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 6,795 shares of company stock worth $229,613 over the last three months. 48.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PEGA. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,272,359 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $648,161,000 after purchasing an additional 221,791 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Pegasystems by 236.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $217,584,000 after buying an additional 2,836,733 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Pegasystems by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,127,771 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $186,790,000 after buying an additional 402,763 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Pegasystems by 255.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $157,393,000 after buying an additional 2,089,375 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Pegasystems by 28.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,721,958 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $162,555,000 after buying an additional 599,790 shares during the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.