Hsbc Holdings PLC Reduces Position in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Hsbc Holdings PLC decreased its holdings in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 58.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,875 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 18,213 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $548,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Personal CFO Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Pegasystems during the first quarter valued at $206,000. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 58.4% in the first quarter. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC now owns 19,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $851,000 after buying an additional 7,367 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 2.2% in the first quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 18,700 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $796,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Childress Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the 1st quarter valued at about $250,000. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR lifted its position in shares of Pegasystems by 150.3% during the 1st quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 9,373 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 5,629 shares in the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pegasystems news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.75, for a total value of $26,062.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 2,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $100,566.50. The trade was a 20.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total value of $151,575.75. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 107,070 shares in the company, valued at $3,570,784.50. This trade represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613. 48.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Pegasystems Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of PEGA stock opened at $30.55 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.26 and a beta of 0.87. Pegasystems Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.10 and a 52 week high of $68.10. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.67.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $427.38 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 18.66% and a return on equity of 32.21%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PEGA has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $35.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. DA Davidson set a $32.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $58.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.10.

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.