Citigroup Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Stock Price

Key Points

• Citigroup cut its price target on Pegasystems to $70 from $75 but maintained a "buy" rating, implying roughly 67% upside from the current share price, while the analyst consensus remains a "Moderate Buy" with a mean target around $67.10.
• Pegasystems slightly beat Q expectations with $0.76 EPS versus $0.74 expected and revenue of $504.3M, and it set FY2026 guidance at $2.75 EPS versus analysts' near-term estimate of about $1.89.
• Company insiders sold about 97,594 shares (~$4.55M) in the last quarter, even though insiders still hold roughly 50% of the stock, and institutional ownership stands at approximately 46.9%.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) had its price target decreased by stock analysts at Citigroup from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "buy" rating on the technology company's stock. Citigroup's price target would suggest a potential upside of 67.08% from the company's current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PEGA. Zacks Research upgraded Pegasystems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen cut Pegasystems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Wedbush decreased their price objective on Pegasystems from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. KeyCorp set a $60.00 price objective on Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $67.10.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of PEGA stock traded up $0.32 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $41.90. The stock had a trading volume of 979,692 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,208,967. Pegasystems has a 12-month low of $32.94 and a 12-month high of $68.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.61 and a beta of 1.09. The firm's 50-day moving average is $42.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.14.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The technology company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.02. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 38.86% and a net margin of 22.54%.The business had revenue of $504.32 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $494.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.80 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Pegasystems has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.750-2.750 EPS. Analysts expect that Pegasystems will post 1.89 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 7,594 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.39, for a total transaction of $329,503.66. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,429 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,834,904.31. This represents a 6.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.02, for a total value of $2,205,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 44,394,454 shares in the company, valued at $2,176,216,135.08. This represents a 0.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 97,594 shares of company stock valued at $4,549,924. 50.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. acquired a new stake in Pegasystems during the third quarter worth about $28,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Pegasystems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in Pegasystems by 321.6% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 565 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. EFG International AG acquired a new stake in Pegasystems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pegasystems Company 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.

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