26,500 Shares in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 26,500 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,128,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. EFG International AG purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in Pegasystems by 96.5% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd grew its holdings in Pegasystems by 316.6% during the fourth quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 704 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its position in Pegasystems by 386.3% in the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 710 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Pegasystems

In other Pegasystems news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $79,306.56. The trade was a 25.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider owned 107,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. The trade was a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613 in the last 90 days. 48.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PEGA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.30.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

PEGA stock opened at $31.05 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.82. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.66 and a 1-year high of $68.10. The stock has a market cap of $5.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.69 and a beta of 0.87.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $473.24 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

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

Pegasystems 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.