Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Buys 296,916 Shares of Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Key Points

• Los Angeles Capital Management increased its Pegasystems stake by 259.7% in the fourth quarter, buying 296,916 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 411,262 shares worth about $26.1 million.
• Analysts remain mixed on PEGA: several firms cut ratings or trimmed targets, but the overall consensus is still Moderate Buy with an average price target of $63.70.
• Pegasystems reported mixed quarterly results, with EPS of $0.46 and revenue of $429.97 million both missing estimates; the stock opened at $34.71, near its 52-week low of $32.00.

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA - Free Report) by 259.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 411,262 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 296,916 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.24% of Pegasystems worth $26,144,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,272,359 shares of the technology company's stock worth $648,161,000 after purchasing an additional 221,791 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 236.2% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company's stock worth $217,584,000 after purchasing an additional 2,836,733 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 255.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company's stock worth $157,393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,089,375 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 11.5% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,725,008 shares of the technology company's stock worth $156,688,000 after purchasing an additional 280,347 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Pegasystems by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,468,516 shares of the technology company's stock worth $141,950,000 after purchasing an additional 181,627 shares in the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEGA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research cut Pegasystems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen cut Pegasystems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $60.00 price target (down from $65.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Citigroup boosted their price target on Pegasystems from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $55.00 price target on Pegasystems and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. 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 MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $63.70.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of PEGA opened at $34.71 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.66 and a beta of 0.86. Pegasystems Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.00 and a 1 year high of $68.10. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $37.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.28.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $473.24 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 30.05% and a net margin of 20.04%.The firm's revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. Pegasystems's dividend payout ratio is 6.45%.

Insider Transactions at Pegasystems

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.81, for a total transaction of $1,971,640.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,123 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,889,801.63. This represents a 28.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 750 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $27,742.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,144 shares in the company, valued at $79,306.56. This trade represents a 25.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 58,639 shares of company stock valued at $2,549,404 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 48.40% of the company's stock.

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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