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

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $66.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the technology company's stock. Citigroup's price target points to a potential upside of 20.56% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on PEGA. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $59.00 to $47.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Loop Capital raised their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $52.50 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Pegasystems from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $57.00.

Pegasystems Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of PEGA stock traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $58.06. 1,825,873 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,025,849. The business has a 50 day moving average of $50.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $45.52. Pegasystems has a 52 week low of $29.84 and a 52 week high of $59.85. The company has a market capitalization of $9.94 billion, a PE ratio of 49.85 and a beta of 1.13.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $384.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $345.07 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 13.14% and a return on equity of 43.72%. The firm's revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.26 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Pegasystems will post 1.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 35,426 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.68, for a total value of $1,582,833.68. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 42,990 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,920,793.20. This trade represents a 45.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 63,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.52, for a total transaction of $3,182,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 34,118,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,723,680,967.68. This represents a 0.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 279,214 shares of company stock valued at $15,452,882 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 49.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its stake in Pegasystems by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 19,597 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,826,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in Pegasystems by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,875 shares of the technology company's stock worth $548,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank increased its stake in Pegasystems by 5.3% in the first quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 3,060 shares of the technology company's stock worth $213,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Pegasystems by 50.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 599 shares of the technology company's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in Pegasystems by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,533 shares of the technology company's stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the period. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.