Pegasystems Inc. (PEGA) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 2nd

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 13th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors 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 dividend payout ratio of 3.7% indicating that 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 %

Shares of NASDAQ PEGA opened at $93.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $89.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $74.35. Pegasystems has a 12 month low of $44.07 and a 12 month high of $97.94. The company has a market cap of $8.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.09 and a beta of 1.09.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $325.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $326.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Pegasystems will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Pegasystems

In related news, CAO Efstathios A. Kouninis sold 528 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.00, for a total transaction of $43,824.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 5,792 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.15, for a total transaction of $458,436.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 17,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,377,210. This trade represents a 24.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 25,162 shares of company stock valued at $2,156,374. 50.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush raised their price objective on Pegasystems from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Pegasystems from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pegasystems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.00.

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.