Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The technology company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02, FiscalAI reports. Pegasystems had a net margin of 16.05% and a return on equity of 43.49%. The company had revenue of $504.32 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $494.60 million.

Pegasystems Trading Up 2.8%

PEGA stock traded up $1.19 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $43.03. 3,978,598 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,896,563. The stock has a market cap of $7.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.88 and a beta of 1.07. Pegasystems has a one year low of $29.84 and a one year high of $68.10. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.15.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 16th. Investors of record on Friday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Pegasystems from $58.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. KeyCorp set a $60.00 target price on Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target (up from $70.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Monday, December 29th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 45,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.02, for a total value of $2,205,900.00. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 44,394,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,176,216,135.08. The trade was a 0.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.19, for a total value of $240,760.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 112,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,792,140.55. This represents a 3.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 108,405 shares of company stock worth $5,896,127. Insiders own 50.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Pegasystems by 236.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,836,733 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Pegasystems by 255.3% during the 2nd 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. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 29.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,122,168 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $122,025,000 after acquiring an additional 488,567 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 105.6% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 814,539 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,091,000 after acquiring an additional 418,439 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 24.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,833,126 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $105,405,000 after acquiring an additional 356,101 shares during the period. 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.