Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.03

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 13th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.03 per share by the technology company on Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.13%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd.

Pegasystems has a dividend payout ratio of 3.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Pegasystems to earn $1.86 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 6.5%.

Pegasystems Stock Performance

Shares of PEGA stock opened at $93.29 on Tuesday. Pegasystems has a fifty-two week low of $44.07 and a fifty-two week high of $97.94. The company has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.09 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $89.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $74.35.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $325.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $326.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.14 earnings per share. Pegasystems’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Pegasystems will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In related news, insider Leon Trefler sold 752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.60, for a total transaction of $71,139.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,489,226.40. This represents a 2.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing 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 dated 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. Insiders sold 25,162 shares of company stock valued at $2,156,374 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 50.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on PEGA shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush increased their target price on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Pegasystems from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.00.

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.