Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Has $102.30 Million Stock Holdings in Pegasystems Inc. $PEGA

Key Points

• Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its Pegasystems stake by 11.1% in the fourth quarter, but still held 1,713,825 shares valued at about $102.3 million as of its latest filing.
• Pegasystems reported a weaker-than-expected quarter, with EPS of $0.46 versus the $0.68 consensus and revenue of $429.97 million, down 9.6% year over year.
• Despite the earnings miss, analysts remain broadly positive: Pegasystems has a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $63.70, while the stock recently traded near $33.39.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its stake in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA - Free Report) by 11.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,713,825 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 213,751 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 1.01% of Pegasystems worth $102,298,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Pegasystems by 2.0% in the third 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. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Pegasystems by 23.1% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,987,291 shares of the technology company's stock worth $286,769,000 after buying an additional 937,216 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Pegasystems by 236.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,037,552 shares of the technology company's stock worth $217,584,000 after buying an additional 2,836,733 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Pegasystems by 255.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,907,677 shares of the technology company's stock worth $157,393,000 after buying an additional 2,089,375 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Pegasystems by 11.5% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,725,008 shares of the technology company's stock worth $156,688,000 after buying an additional 280,347 shares during the last quarter. 46.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pegasystems Price Performance

PEGA stock opened at $33.39 on Friday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.23 and a 52-week high of $68.10. The company has a 50-day moving average of $40.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $49.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.95 and a beta of 0.88.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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). Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.05%. The firm had revenue of $429.97 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $473.24 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders 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 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 1st. Pegasystems's dividend payout ratio is 6.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pegasystems

In other Pegasystems news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.88, for a total transaction of $42,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 3,365 shares in the company, valued at $144,291.20. This represents a 22.91% 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, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 7,594 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.39, for a total transaction of $329,503.66. Following the sale, the insider owned 111,429 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,834,904.31. This trade represents a 6.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 52,594 shares of company stock worth $2,344,024 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 48.40% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on PEGA. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $60.00 target price (down from $65.00) on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Pegasystems from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and set a $62.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $60.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Pegasystems has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $63.70.

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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