Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Shares Gap Down After Earnings Miss

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday following a dissappointing earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $43.80, but opened at $42.23. Pegasystems shares last traded at $42.1070, with a volume of 502,951 shares trading hands.

The technology company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $429.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.24 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 30.46%. Pegasystems’s revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share.

Pegasystems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. Pegasystems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PEGA has been the topic of several analyst reports. KeyCorp set a $60.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $62.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Monday. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.60.

Insider Transactions at Pegasystems

In other Pegasystems news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 44,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.81, for a total transaction of $1,971,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,123 shares in the company, valued at $4,889,801.63. This represents a 28.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 7,594 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.39, for a total value of $329,503.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 111,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,834,904.31. This trade represents a 6.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 52,594 shares of company stock worth $2,344,024 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 49.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. purchased a new position in Pegasystems in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pegasystems during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in Pegasystems by 321.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 565 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. EFG International AG purchased a new stake in Pegasystems during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in Pegasystems during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.89% of the company’s stock.

Pegasystems Trading Down 4.6%

The business’s 50-day moving average is $43.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.34 billion, a PE ratio of 20.15 and a beta of 1.09.

About Pegasystems

Pegasystems Inc is a software company specializing in customer engagement and digital process automation solutions. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Pegasystems develops enterprise applications designed to help organizations streamline operations, manage customer interactions and automate complex workflows. Its platform supports a wide range of use cases, from sales and marketing optimization to case management and robotic process automation.

The core of Pegasystems’ offering is the Pega Platform, a low-code development environment that enables businesses to build and deploy applications with minimal hand-coding.