Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Shares Break Below 50-Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)’s stock price passed below its fifty day moving average during trading on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $35.28 and traded as low as $33.59. Pegasystems shares last traded at $34.11, with a volume of 2,024,282 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PEGA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp downgraded Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Zacks Research cut Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Yorkville Ives began coverage on Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $43.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up from $35.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.73.

Pegasystems Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $5.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.19 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $35.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.40.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $393.36 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $421.06 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 35.22% and a net margin of 16.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.30 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 1st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pegasystems news, Director Dianne Ledingham sold 1,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.15, for a total value of $34,150.00. Following the sale, the director owned 38,280 shares in the company, valued at $1,307,262. The trade was a 2.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Efstathios Kouninis sold 982 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.35, for a total transaction of $36,677.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,009 shares in the company, valued at $37,686.15. The trade was a 49.32% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 53,672 shares of company stock worth $1,921,657 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Pegasystems during the third quarter worth approximately $437,000. Vise Technologies Inc. boosted its holdings in Pegasystems by 141.5% in the third quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 16,921 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $563,000 after purchasing an additional 9,913 shares in the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al increased its stake in Pegasystems by 64.9% in the third quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 97,350 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,240,000 after purchasing an additional 38,300 shares during the last quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Pegasystems in the third quarter valued at approximately $322,000. Finally, Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 9,969.2% during the third quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. now owns 3,927 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $131,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

About Pegasystems

Pegasystems Inc is a software company that develops enterprise applications for customer engagement, workflow automation and business process management. Its technology helps organizations manage customer interactions, automate repetitive work, coordinate complex processes and make data-driven decisions across departments and channels.

The company’s portfolio includes Pega Platform, a low-code application development and workflow platform, along with solutions for customer service, sales automation, marketing, decisioning and artificial intelligence.