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

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 paid a dividend of 0.03 per share by the technology company on Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.13%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd.

Pegasystems has a payout ratio of 3.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Trading Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ PEGA opened at $93.29 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.35. Pegasystems has a 12 month low of $44.07 and a 12 month high of $97.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.09 and a beta of 1.09.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $326.16 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.14 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Pegasystems will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Pegasystems from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays increased their price target 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 lifted their price objective on shares of Pegasystems from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” 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 research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 299 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.90, for a total transaction of $28,973.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 1,000 shares of Pegasystems stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.07, for a total transaction of $80,070.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 47,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,772,818.33. This represents a 2.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 25,162 shares of company stock worth $2,156,374. 50.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.