First Trust Advisors LP Grows Stock Position in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 44.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,048,599 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 630,023 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 1.23% of Pegasystems worth $87,188,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pegasystems news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $79,306.56. This represents a 25.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 107,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 6,795 shares of company stock worth $229,613. 48.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PEGA shares. Zacks Research cut Pegasystems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. KeyCorp lowered Pegasystems from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. William Blair cut Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price target on Pegasystems from $58.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Pegasystems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.10.

Pegasystems Trading Up 3.1%

NASDAQ PEGA opened at $26.82 on Friday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.10 and a 12 month high of $68.10. The stock has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a PE ratio of 15.15 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $32.13 and its 200 day moving average is $39.70.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $420.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $427.38 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. 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 (DPR) 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.