Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Price Target Raised to $115.00

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) had its target price lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from $90.00 to $115.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on PEGA. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com raised shares of Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.50.

Pegasystems Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of Pegasystems stock opened at $94.50 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.98 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $91.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.25. Pegasystems has a 52 week low of $44.07 and a 52 week high of $97.94.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.04. Pegasystems had a net margin of 8.29% and a return on equity of 37.83%. The firm had revenue of $325.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $326.16 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.14 EPS. Pegasystems’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Pegasystems will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.13%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pegasystems news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 5,792 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.15, for a total transaction of $458,436.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 17,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,377,210. The trade was a 24.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 1,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.07, for a total value of $80,070.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 47,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,772,818.33. This represents a 2.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 27,914 shares of company stock valued at $2,414,935 in the last 90 days. 50.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PEGA. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 12,058 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $730,000 after acquiring an additional 505 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 52,022 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,149,000 after buying an additional 1,087 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 82.0% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 59,841 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,622,000 after buying an additional 26,959 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 11,744 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $711,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the period. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 6,962 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $421,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

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.