Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA), a business process management operation, brought out a fantastic earnings report for its fourth quarter. Sufficiently fantastic, in fact, to send shares up nearly 33% in Thursday morning’s trading session.
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Pegasystems led off with a killer beat, bringing out an earnings per share figure of $1.77 against a consensus estimate of $0.99. That proved a substantial beat to projections and better than doubled the figure brought in this time last year, which came in at $0.82 per share. That’s not necessarily new for Pegasystems—it’s beaten projections twice in the last four quarters—but it’s still somewhat novel. Revenue also proved a substantial beat, as it posted $474.23 million. This was above consensus figures by nearly 11%.
Universal Growth Means Big Results
The numbers by themselves were impressive, but it got better from there. Pegasystems reported growth in every one of its sectors. Cloud, for example, saw a 25% jump in revenue. Meanwhile, its Maintenance segment added 18%, and its Subscription sector added 87%. With its annual contract value also on the rise, it’s clear that Pegasystems had a fantastic quarter. While it may not be able to repeat that kind of impressive surge next quarter—no company can grow forever, after all—it certainly can deliver something.
Is PEGA a Good Stock to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on PEGA stock based on three Buys and three Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 33.12% rally in its share price over the past year, the average PEGA price target of $59.20 per share implies 12.19% downside risk.
