Quantbot Technologies LP Invests $555,000 in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 18,529 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $555,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PEGA. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter valued at $286,923,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 236.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $217,584,000 after buying an additional 2,836,733 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 255.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $157,393,000 after buying an additional 2,089,375 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the first quarter valued at about $47,817,000. Finally, Capital Impact Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter worth about $45,705,000. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pegasystems Stock Up 6.1%

NASDAQ:PEGA opened at $35.89 on Friday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.10 and a 12-month high of $68.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.90 billion, a PE ratio of 20.28 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $31.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.53.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.78%.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $27,742.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 2,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $79,306.56. The trade was a 25.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.99, for a total value of $101,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 108,049 shares in the company, valued at $3,672,585.51. This trade represents a 2.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 4,500 shares of company stock valued at $153,945 in the last 90 days. 48.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on PEGA. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Pegasystems from $58.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $39.00 price objective (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. William Blair cut Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Loop Capital lowered Pegasystems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $55.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 target price on Pegasystems and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.10.

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.