Rifat Kerim Akgonul Sells 4,000 Shares of Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Stock

Key Points

• Rifat Kerim Akgonul, an insider at Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA), sold 4,000 shares at an average price of $56.97, decreasing his ownership by 5.35%.
• Pegasystems reported $0.28 earnings per share for their latest quarter, surpassing expectations and showing a 9.5% revenue increase year-over-year.
• The company recently raised its quarterly dividend from $0.02 to $0.03 per share, reflecting a positive change with a payout ratio of 10.34%.

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.97, for a total value of $227,880.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 70,717 shares in the company, valued at $4,028,747.49. This trade represents a 5.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Rifat Kerim Akgonul also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, September 3rd, Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 5,000 shares of Pegasystems stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.08, for a total value of $270,400.00.
• On Tuesday, September 2nd, Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 2,000 shares of Pegasystems stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.40, for a total value of $106,800.00.
• On Thursday, July 24th, Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 9,879 shares of Pegasystems stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.82, for a total value of $571,203.78.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

PEGA traded down $0.49 on Tuesday, hitting $57.01. 942,831 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,917,179. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.64. Pegasystems Inc. has a 12 month low of $29.84 and a 12 month high of $60.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.75 billion, a PE ratio of 48.94 and a beta of 1.08.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.04. Pegasystems had a return on equity of 42.42% and a net margin of 13.14%.The business had revenue of $384.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $345.07 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.26 EPS. Pegasystems's revenue for the quarter was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Pegasystems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 1st. This is a positive change from Pegasystems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. Pegasystems's dividend payout ratio is 10.34%.

Institutional Trading of Pegasystems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 195.4% in the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 8,761 shares of the technology company's stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 5,795 shares in the last quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 174.5% in the second quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 25,377 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,374,000 after acquiring an additional 16,133 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 85.1% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,901,978 shares of the technology company's stock worth $102,897,000 after acquiring an additional 874,686 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Pegasystems in the second quarter worth $380,000. Finally, Ranger Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 75.9% in the second quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,121,350 shares of the technology company's stock worth $60,699,000 after acquiring an additional 483,745 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 46.89% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PEGA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Pegasystems from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Pegasystems from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Pegasystems from $55.00 to $62.50 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Pegasystems from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $61.83.

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.

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