Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Raises Stock Position in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 322,424 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,102 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Pegasystems were worth $23,566,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC purchased a new stake in Pegasystems in the third quarter worth $436,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its position in Pegasystems by 110.0% during the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 25,195 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after buying an additional 13,200 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Pegasystems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $9,567,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Pegasystems in the 2nd quarter worth $67,968,000. Finally, Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in Pegasystems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $497,000. Institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.60, for a total value of $189,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,456,840. This trade represents a 11.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Leon Trefler sold 752 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.00, for a total value of $54,144.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,388 shares in the company, valued at $2,763,936. This represents a 1.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,415 shares of company stock worth $1,667,761. 50.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PEGA. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective 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. Wedbush lifted their target price 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. Barclays increased their target price 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $87.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Three investment 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.90.

Pegasystems Stock Down 0.7 %

PEGA opened at $96.43 on Friday. Pegasystems Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.07 and a 52 week high of $97.94. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $82.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $69.89. The company has a market cap of $8.27 billion, a PE ratio of 70.39 and a beta of 1.09.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last posted its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $325.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $326.16 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 8.29% and a return on equity of 37.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Pegasystems Inc. will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pegasystems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. Pegasystems’s payout ratio is 8.76%.

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.