Royal Bank of Canada Buys 70,246 Shares of Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 22.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 381,787 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 70,246 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.23% of Pegasystems worth $16,249,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PEGA. Ranger Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in Pegasystems by 15.6% during the 1st quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,052,849 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,809,000 after buying an additional 141,873 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 62.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 56,428 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,400,000 after buying an additional 21,712 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 95.7% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 473,897 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,169,000 after buying an additional 231,691 shares in the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the first quarter valued at approximately $6,212,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the first quarter valued at approximately $905,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Trading Down 0.4%

PEGA stock opened at $31.67 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $31.52 and its 200 day moving average is $37.88. The stock has a market cap of $5.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.89 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.10 and a 1-year high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its 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). Pegasystems had a net margin of 18.66% and a return on equity of 32.21%. The company had revenue of $420.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $427.38 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. William Blair lowered shares of Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Loop Capital downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $55.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $32.00 price objective on Pegasystems and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.10.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In other news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of Pegasystems 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 sale, the insider directly owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. The trade was a 4.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total transaction of $27,742.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 2,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,795 shares of company stock worth $229,613. Corporate insiders own 48.40% 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.