Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA Shares Bought by Fifth Third Bancorp

Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 5,116.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,184 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 31,567 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $1,370,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 236.2% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in 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. Capital Impact Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter valued at $45,705,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 28.3% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter worth $32,274,000. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $58.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $39.00 price target (down from $48.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Thursday. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 107,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. The trade was a 4.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613. Corporate insiders own 48.40% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Stock Up 3.1%

Shares of PEGA stock opened at $26.82 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.15 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.10 and a 12 month high of $68.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $32.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.70.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $420.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.38 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

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

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.