Renaissance Technologies LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)

Renaissance Technologies LLC cut its stake in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 13.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 96,024 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 14,600 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $8,949,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stifel Financial Corp purchased a new stake in Pegasystems during the third quarter valued at about $467,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 819,282 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $59,895,000 after purchasing an additional 25,901 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pegasystems during the 3rd quarter worth about $325,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Pegasystems by 54.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 141,031 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,362,000 after purchasing an additional 49,433 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 88,554 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,353,000 after buying an additional 7,947 shares during the period. 46.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pegasystems news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.63, for a total transaction of $211,260.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 14,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,528,043.58. This represents a 12.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 31,500 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.38, for a total transaction of $2,437,470.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 17,308,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,339,353,860.68. This trade represents a 0.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 80,791 shares of company stock valued at $6,134,554 in the last quarter. Insiders own 50.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PEGA shares. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Barclays reduced their price objective on Pegasystems from $103.00 to $97.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price target on Pegasystems from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.27.

Pegasystems Trading Up 0.5 %

PEGA stock opened at $68.34 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $85.27. The company has a market capitalization of $5.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.66 and a beta of 1.22. Pegasystems Inc. has a twelve month low of $54.55 and a twelve month high of $113.67.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The technology company reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.20). Pegasystems had a return on equity of 32.09% and a net margin of 6.63%. On average, research analysts predict that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.89 EPS for the current year.

Pegasystems Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st were paid a dividend of $0.015 per share. This represents a $0.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 1st. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is currently 11.88%.

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.