Short Interest in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) Increases By 26.8%

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) saw a significant growth in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,560,000 shares, a growth of 26.8% from the January 31st total of 1,230,000 shares. Approximately 3.6% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 749,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on PEGA. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $118.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $103.00 to $97.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $99.36.

Pegasystems Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PEGA opened at $76.86 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $94.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.11. Pegasystems has a 52 week low of $54.55 and a 52 week high of $113.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.10 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.16%. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.88%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 299 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.90, for a total transaction of $28,973.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 6,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.67, for a total transaction of $586,954.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,466 shares in the company, valued at $1,748,176.22. The trade was a 25.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 54,542 shares of company stock worth $4,490,746 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 50.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 189.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,364,242 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $220,347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,546,281 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 860,361 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,188,000 after acquiring an additional 164,986 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 825,762 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $76,983,000 after acquiring an additional 6,480 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 807,671 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $75,275,000 after acquiring an additional 4,989 shares during the period. Finally, Shannon River Fund Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Pegasystems by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Shannon River Fund Management LLC now owns 798,356 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $74,407,000 after acquiring an additional 9,989 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

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.