Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Acquires 17,997 Shares of Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 24.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 91,501 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,997 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $3,894,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Pegasystems in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. EFG International AG purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 96.5% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the period. Bayforest Capital Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 316.6% in the fourth quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 704 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 386.3% in the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 710 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.30.

Pegasystems Price Performance

PEGA stock opened at $32.16 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $32.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.80. The company has a market capitalization of $5.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.29 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.66 and a 1-year high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 30.05% and a net margin of 20.04%.The business had revenue of $429.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $473.24 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.45%.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In related news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,570,784.50. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 2,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 sold a total of 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

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.