Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Boosts Stock Position in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Key Points

• Harel Insurance Investments increased its Pegasystems stake by 58.6% in the first quarter, buying an additional 50,716 shares and bringing its holding to 137,302 shares worth about $5.84 million.
• Analyst sentiment on PEGA remains mostly positive, with eight Buy ratings and three Hold ratings, giving the stock a consensus Moderate Buy and a $63.30 price target.
• Pegasystems reported mixed first-quarter results, missing earnings and revenue estimates, while insiders sold shares recently and the company paid a small quarterly dividend yielding about 0.4%.

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA - Free Report) by 58.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 137,302 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 50,716 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. owned approximately 0.08% of Pegasystems worth $5,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PEGA. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in Pegasystems by 1.4% in the third quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 13,652 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $785,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Amundi increased its position in shares of Pegasystems by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 39,881 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,382,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,378 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $500,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its position in Pegasystems by 1.4% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 22,000 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $936,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in Pegasystems by 96.5% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.89% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PEGA. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Zacks Research lowered Pegasystems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $63.30.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In other Pegasystems news, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,545 shares of the business'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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 107,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,570,784.50. The trade was a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.75, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 20.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 6,795 shares of company stock valued at $229,613 in the last 90 days. 48.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Pegasystems Trading Up 2.0%

NASDAQ:PEGA opened at $31.28 on Thursday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.66 and a 12-month high of $68.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $32.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.07. The firm has a market cap of $5.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.82 and a beta of 0.87.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.22). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 30.05% and a net margin of 20.04%.The business had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $473.24 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.76 EPS. Pegasystems's revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a $0.03 dividend. 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 payout ratio is 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.

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