Citizens Jmp Downgrades Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) to Market Perform

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) was downgraded by equities researchers at Citizens Jmp from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday.

PEGA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $58.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.30.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of Pegasystems stock opened at $30.94 on Wednesday. Pegasystems has a 1 year low of $28.66 and a 1 year high of $68.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $32.55 and its 200 day moving average is $40.24. The stock has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.63 and a beta of 0.87.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $427.38 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Pegasystems will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 6,795 shares of company stock worth $229,613 in the last 90 days. 48.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pegasystems

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted 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 acquiring an additional 2,836,733 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,127,771 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $186,790,000 after purchasing an additional 402,763 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 valued at $157,393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,089,375 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Pegasystems by 28.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,721,958 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $162,555,000 after purchasing an additional 599,790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Pegasystems by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,529,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $151,094,000 after purchasing an additional 61,251 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.