Pegasystems Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.02 (NASDAQ:PEGA)

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.015 per share by the technology company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st.

Pegasystems has a payout ratio of 3.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Pegasystems to earn $2.16 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 5.6%.

Pegasystems Trading Down 4.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ PEGA opened at $69.52 on Friday. Pegasystems has a twelve month low of $54.55 and a twelve month high of $113.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $87.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $85.66. The company has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.83 and a beta of 1.25.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Pegasystems will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PEGA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Pegasystems from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $103.00 to $97.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of Pegasystems in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $118.00 target price on shares of Pegasystems in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Pegasystems from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Pegasystems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.36.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Alan Trefler sold 31,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.38, for a total value of $2,437,470.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 17,308,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,339,353,860.68. This trade represents a 0.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.25, for a total value of $144,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 56,534 shares in the company, valued at $4,084,581.50. This trade represents a 3.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 81,543 shares of company stock worth $6,253,614. 50.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.