Eagle Asset Management Inc. Increases Stake in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 440.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 147,350 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 120,090 shares during the quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. owned 0.17% of Pegasystems worth $10,770,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of PEGA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Pegasystems by 4.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,369,237 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $347,067,000 after acquiring an additional 250,273 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Pegasystems by 309.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 130,281 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,422,000 after buying an additional 98,465 shares in the last quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the first quarter valued at approximately $423,000. Comerica Bank increased its position in shares of Pegasystems by 2,166.3% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 24,589 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 23,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Pegasystems by 15,120.0% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 761 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 756 shares in the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.00, for a total value of $53,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142. This represents a 99.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.41, for a total value of $70,410.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 46,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,274,417.05. This trade represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,345 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,284 in the last three months. 50.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PEGA opened at $91.52 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $77.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.85. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.07 and a 1-year high of $91.67. The company has a market cap of $7.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.80 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were given a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.13%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.76%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on PEGA shares. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. JMP Securities raised Pegasystems from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. William Blair raised Pegasystems from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com raised Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Pegasystems from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.90.

Pegasystems Profile

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.