Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA Shares Sold by Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.

Key Points

• Harel Insurance cut its stake in Pegasystems by 26.8%, selling 31,768 shares and leaving it with 86,586 shares valued at about $5.17 million.
• Pegasystems missed quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $0.46 versus $0.68 expected and revenue of $429.97 million versus $473.24 million, with revenue down 9.6% year-over-year.
• Insider selling has been notable—CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares and insiders sold 52,594 shares (≈$2.34M) over the last three months—while analysts' average target remains $63.70 (MarketBeat "Moderate Buy") as the stock trades near $37.

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. cut its stake in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA - Free Report) by 26.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 86,586 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 31,768 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. owned 0.05% of Pegasystems worth $5,171,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. acquired a new stake in Pegasystems in the third quarter worth $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 321.6% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 565 shares of the technology company's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Pegasystems in the third quarter worth $33,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 96.5% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 617 shares of the technology company's stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd grew its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 316.6% in the fourth quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 704 shares of the technology company's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEGA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut Pegasystems from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. KeyCorp set a $60.00 price target on Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Zacks Research cut Pegasystems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $55.00 price target on Pegasystems and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $63.70.

Pegasystems Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of Pegasystems stock opened at $36.95 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.43. The firm has a market cap of $6.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.87 and a beta of 0.88. Pegasystems Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.33 and a fifty-two week high of $68.10.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.24 million. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 30.05% and a net margin of 20.04%.Pegasystems's revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,123 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,889,801.63. The trade was a 28.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 1,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.88, for a total value of $42,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 3,365 shares in the company, valued at approximately $144,291.20. The trade was a 22.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 52,594 shares of company stock valued at $2,344,024 over the last three months. Company insiders own 48.40% of the company's stock.

About Pegasystems

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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