Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Reaches New 52-Week High – Here’s Why

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $98.00 and last traded at $96.50, with a volume of 38811 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $93.77.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PEGA. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup increased their price target on Pegasystems from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Wedbush raised their price target on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $118.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.91.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $8.79 billion, a PE ratio of 74.81 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $93.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.28.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $325.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $326.16 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 37.83% and a net margin of 8.29%. Pegasystems’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.12%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In other news, insider Leon Trefler sold 8,288 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.23, for a total transaction of $673,234.24. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 37,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,057,172.28. The trade was a 18.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.07, for a total value of $80,070.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 47,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,772,818.33. This trade represents a 2.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 27,914 shares of company stock valued at $2,414,935. Corporate insiders own 50.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pegasystems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Pegasystems by 266.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 390,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $23,641,000 after purchasing an additional 284,095 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 4.5% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 107,824 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,527,000 after buying an additional 4,600 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its position in Pegasystems by 28.4% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 5,760 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $349,000 after acquiring an additional 1,273 shares during the last quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 3,434 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $208,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,565,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

About Pegasystems

Pegasystems Inc develops, markets, licenses, hosts, and supports enterprise software in the United States, rest of the Americas, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company provides Pega Infinity, a software portfolio comprising of Pega Customer Decision Hub, a real-time AI-powered decision engine to enhance customer acquisition and experiences across inbound, outbound, and paid media channels; Pega Customer Service to anticipate customer needs, connect customers to people and systems, and automate customer interactions to evolve the customer service experience, as well as to allow enterprises to deliver interactions across channels and enhance employee productivity; and Pega Platform, an intelligent automation software for increasing efficiency of clients’ processes and workflows.