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

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given 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 0.12%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd.

Pegasystems has a dividend payout ratio of 3.8% 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 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PEGA traded down $0.55 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $96.66. 438,939 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 537,994. The company has a market cap of $8.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.96 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $85.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.77. Pegasystems has a 52 week low of $44.07 and a 52 week high of $97.94.

Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $325.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $326.16 million. Pegasystems had a net margin of 8.29% and a return on equity of 37.83%. Pegasystems’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.14 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Pegasystems will post 1.61 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PEGA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on Pegasystems from $87.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com raised Pegasystems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Pegasystems from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a 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 note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Pegasystems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kenneth Stillwell sold 6,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.67, for a total transaction of $586,954.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,466 shares in the company, valued at $1,748,176.22. The trade was a 25.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Rifat Kerim Akgonul sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.07, for a total value of $80,070.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 47,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold 26,615 shares of company stock worth $2,254,715 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 50.10% of the company’s stock.

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.