Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Position in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 6.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,639 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 237 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pegasystems by 4.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,369,237 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $347,067,000 after purchasing an additional 250,273 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Pegasystems by 309.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 130,281 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,422,000 after purchasing an additional 98,465 shares during the last quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Pegasystems in the 1st quarter worth about $423,000. Comerica Bank grew its position in Pegasystems by 2,166.3% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 24,589 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 23,504 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Pegasystems by 15,120.0% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 756 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In other news, Director Richard H. Jones sold 10,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.88, for a total value of $698,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 357,058 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,951,213.04. The trade was a 2.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 528 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.00, for a total value of $43,824.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,595 shares of company stock valued at $2,454,034. 50.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEGA has been the subject of several analyst reports. Loop Capital raised shares of Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $68.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Pegasystems from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Pegasystems from $87.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Three 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.90.

Pegasystems Price Performance

Shares of PEGA stock opened at $95.33 on Tuesday. Pegasystems Inc. has a one year low of $44.07 and a one year high of $95.91. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $77.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.13. The company has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.58 and a beta of 1.06.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.04. Pegasystems had a net margin of 8.29% and a return on equity of 37.83%. The business 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. The company’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.13%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.76%.

Pegasystems Company Profile

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.