Latest news with #AlanTrefler
Bloomberg
15 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Pega CEO on Rebuilding Enterprise Workflows with AI: Tech Disruptors
Enterprise software is evolving as generative AI enables smarter ways to build and run business processes. In this Tech Disruptors episode, Sunil Rajgopal speaks with Pegasystems CEO Alan Trefler on how tools like Blueprint and agentic workflows help modernize legacy systems and boost productivity. They discuss Pega's recurring SaaS revenue, customer verticals and how its low-code roots power its AI strategy. Alan also shares his views on the evolving competitive landscape, future product strategy, and scale ambitions.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q1 Automation Software Earnings Review: First Prize Goes to Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA)
Earnings results often indicate what direction a company will take in the months ahead. With Q1 behind us, let's have a look at Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) and its peers. The whole purpose of software is to automate tasks to increase productivity. Today, innovative new software techniques, often involving AI and machine learning, are finally allowing automation that has graduated from simple one- or two-step workflows to more complex processes integral to enterprises. The result is surging demand for modern automation software. The 7 automation software stocks we track reported a strong Q1. As a group, revenues beat analysts' consensus estimates by 5.9% while next quarter's revenue guidance was in line. Luckily, automation software stocks have performed well with share prices up 10.8% on average since the latest earnings results. Founded by Alan Trefler in 1983, Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) offers a software-as-a-service platform to automate and optimize workflows in customer service and engagement. Pegasystems reported revenues of $475.6 million, up 44.1% year on year. This print exceeded analysts' expectations by 33.1%. Overall, it was an incredible quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts' billings estimates and a solid beat of analysts' EBITDA estimates. Pegasystems pulled off the biggest analyst estimates beat of the whole group. The stock is up 41% since reporting and currently trades at $97. Is now the time to buy Pegasystems? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free. Started in 2005 in Romania as a tech outsourcing company, UiPath (NYSE:PATH) makes software that helps companies automate repetitive computer tasks. UiPath reported revenues of $356.6 million, up 6.4% year on year, outperforming analysts' expectations by 7.4%. The business had a very strong quarter with an impressive beat of analysts' billings estimates and a solid beat of analysts' EBITDA estimates. The market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 3.6% since reporting. It currently trades at $12.49. Is now the time to buy UiPath? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free. Founded in 2005, SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) develops independent voice artificial intelligence solutions that enable businesses across various industries to offer customized conversational experiences to consumers. SoundHound AI reported revenues of $29.13 million, up 151% year on year, falling short of analysts' expectations by 4.4%. It was a softer quarter as it posted a significant miss of analysts' EBITDA estimates. SoundHound AI delivered the fastest revenue growth but had the weakest performance against analyst estimates in the group. Interestingly, the stock is up 2.8% since the results and currently trades at $10. Read our full analysis of SoundHound AI's results here. Founded by Matt Calkins and his three friends out of an apartment in Northern Virginia, Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) sells a software platform that lets its users build applications without using much code, allowing them to create new software more quickly. Appian reported revenues of $166.4 million, up 11.1% year on year. This print surpassed analysts' expectations by 2%. Zooming out, it was a mixed quarter as it also logged a solid beat of analysts' EBITDA estimates. Appian had the weakest full-year guidance update among its peers. The stock is up 2.4% since reporting and currently trades at $31.10. Read our full, actionable report on Appian here, it's free. Founded by Fred Luddy, who coded the company's initial prototype on a flight from San Francisco to London, ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) is a software provider helping companies automate workflows across IT, HR, and customer service. ServiceNow reported revenues of $3.09 billion, up 18.6% year on year. This number met analysts' expectations. More broadly, it was a decent quarter as it also recorded an impressive beat of analysts' current remaining performance obligation estimates. The stock is up 24.4% since reporting and currently trades at $1,013. Read our full, actionable report on ServiceNow here, it's free. The Fed's interest rate hikes throughout 2022 and 2023 have successfully cooled post-pandemic inflation, bringing it closer to the 2% target. Inflationary pressures have eased without tipping the economy into a recession, suggesting a soft landing. This stability, paired with recent rate cuts (0.5% in September 2024 and 0.25% in November 2024), fueled a strong year for the stock market in 2024. The markets surged further after Donald Trump's presidential victory in November, with major indices reaching record highs in the days following the election. Still, questions remain about the direction of economic policy, as potential tariffs and corporate tax changes add uncertainty for 2025. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our 9 Best Market-Beating Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cognizant and Pegasystems Partner to Bring AI-led Transformation to Enterprise Legacy Modernization
Collaboration augments Cognizant's proven modernization services with Pega Blueprint to help enterprises reimagine legacy transformation projects and build agentified, future-ready enterprise systems. TEANECK, N.J., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is expanding its strategic collaboration with Pegasystems Inc., The Enterprise Transformation Company™, to augment Cognizant's agentic AI services with Pega Blueprint™ and drive rapid, successful cloud transformations for joint clients. Large numbers of enterprises on legacy systems continue to incur major costs every year in operations, maintenance, and licensing, and even more in 'hidden' costs – poor customer experience, inefficient processes, lack of real-time data, and more. To help enterprises address and overcome these challenges, Cognizant plans to integrate its IP with Pega Blueprint capabilities, enabling Cognizant associates to quickly convert ideas into Minimum Viable Products through a suite of rapid development tools and initiatives such as Bluebolt – Cognizant's grassroots innovation program. By leveraging Cognizant's workbench for AI-driven legacy code rewrite capabilities, business rules and data extraction, Cognizant aims to help customers optimize and reimagine processes and build AI-powered systems on the Pega Infinity platform. "The opportunity to modernize legacy enterprise systems has never been more urgent, or more achievable, as agentic AI redefines how enterprises build intelligent, adaptive systems, ready for what's next," said Ravi Kumar S, CEO, Cognizant. "By harnessing the power of Pega Blueprint technology alongside Cognizant's deep industry expertise and innovation mindset, we will not just be upgrading customers' outdated infrastructure, across industries, but guiding them toward unlocking trapped value and leaping forward into a more adaptive, AI-native future." Enterprises are moving away from traditional 'lift-and-shift' approaches of legacy systems modernization towards robust AI-infused transformation journeys that reimagine business processes, customer experience and growth. Cognizant and Pega are coming together through this collaboration to help customers accelerate their journey and achieve outstanding business outcomes. "Legacy discovery is one of the most challenging parts of technology modernization, often hampered by manually intensive, time-consuming, and error-prone workflows," said Alan Trefler, founder & CEO of Pegasystems. "This collaboration with Cognizant is designed to help clients bring new levels of efficiency and innovation to their transformation projects, showcasing the transformational power of Pega Blueprint through what we believe is the industry's first GenAI-powered, rapid innovation program to benefit enterprises across industries." Cognizant will be showcasing Pega Blueprint-driven industry solutions live at PegaWorld from June 1-3 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. For more information visit Cognizant's Pega Platform Services. For more information, contact: U.S. Name Ben Gorelick / APAC Name Christina Schneider Name Rashmi Vasisht View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Cognizant Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pegasystems Inc (PEGA) Q1 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong ACV Growth and Debt-Free Milestone
Annual Contract Value (ACV): Increased by $74 million, with a growth rate of over 13% year over year. Pega Cloud ACV: Grew by 23% to $700 million. Free Cash Flow: Generated $202 million in the first quarter. Share Repurchases: Approximately $1.5 million shares repurchased for $120 million, reducing outstanding shares by nearly 550,000. Debt Status: Fully repaid remaining convertible note balances of $468 million, achieving debt-free status. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 9 Warning Signs with VIRT. Release Date: April 23, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Pegasystems Inc (NASDAQ:PEGA) reported a strong start to 2025 with an impressive increase in annual contract value (ACV) by $74 million, marking a 13% year-over-year growth. The Pega GenAI Blueprint has significantly enhanced sales processes, allowing for faster and more effective client engagement, which has contributed to the company's strong performance. Pega Cloud ACV grew by 23% to $700 million, indicating successful cross-selling and upselling strategies and a strong focus on cloud transformation. The company achieved $202 million in free cash flow in Q1, surpassing the total free cash flow generated in the entire year of 2023, demonstrating efficient cash management. Pegasystems Inc (NASDAQ:PEGA) has become debt-free after fully repaying its convertible note balances, strengthening its balance sheet and financial position. Currency fluctuations have impacted Pega Cloud revenue, creating discrepancies between ACV growth and revenue realization. There is a noted lag in converting ACV and backlog into revenue, which may affect short-term financial performance visibility. The macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, particularly in Europe, which could influence customer buying behavior and sales cycles. Despite strong ACV growth, there is concern about the variability of term license revenue due to accounting practices, which may lead to inconsistent revenue recognition. The competitive landscape is crowded with numerous vendors offering similar AI-driven solutions, making it challenging for Pegasystems Inc (NASDAQ:PEGA) to differentiate its offerings in the market. Q: Can you explain the factors behind the strong performance in term licenses and the discrepancy between Pega Cloud ACV bookings and revenue? A: Kenneth Stillwell, CFO and COO, explained that term license revenue can fluctuate due to the nature of ASC 606 accounting, which causes variability in revenue recognition. Regarding Pega Cloud, the difference between ACV bookings and revenue is due to the time it takes for ACV and backlog to convert into revenue, typically a few quarters, along with currency impacts from the previous year. Q: How are customers responding to macroeconomic uncertainties, and have you noticed any changes in buying behavior or sales cycles? A: Alan Trefler, CEO, noted that while there is increased uncertainty, particularly in Europe, customer engagement remains high. The company tends to perform well in uncertain times, and there hasn't been a significant change in customer buying behavior or sales cycles. Q: What impact has Blueprint had on deal influence and pipeline generation? A: Alan Trefler stated that Blueprint has influenced every piece of business, breaking down barriers between business and technical teams and becoming a ubiquitous tool in client engagements. It has significantly changed the business by facilitating faster and more effective communication and solution visualization. Q: How do you view the competitive landscape with many vendors claiming to offer agentic solutions, and how does Pega differentiate itself? A: Alan Trefler highlighted that Pega's approach combines language models with workflows, providing a clear advantage over competitors who rely heavily on prompt engineering. Pega's solutions offer predictability and reliability, which are crucial for enterprise-scale applications, setting them apart from other vendors. Q: What are your thoughts on the Rule of 40 targets and the balance between ACV growth and free cash flow margins? A: Kenneth Stillwell emphasized that the company aims to accelerate growth while improving operating leverage. They are optimistic about expanding both growth rates and free cash flow margins, maintaining a focus on strategic growth without compromising profitability. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) Reports Upbeat Q1, Stock Jumps 22.8%
Enterprise workflow software provider Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) reported Q1 CY2025 results beating Wall Street's revenue expectations , with sales up 44.1% year on year to $475.6 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.53 per share was significantly above analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy Pegasystems? Find out in our full research report. Revenue: $475.6 million vs analyst estimates of $357.5 million (44.1% year-on-year growth, 33.1% beat) Adjusted EPS: $1.53 vs analyst estimates of $0.50 (significant beat) Operating Margin: 26.7%, up from -6.2% in the same quarter last year Free Cash Flow Margin: 42.5%, up from 18.8% in the previous quarter Market Capitalization: $5.68 billion Founded by Alan Trefler in 1983, Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) offers a software-as-a-service platform to automate and optimize workflows in customer service and engagement. The whole purpose of software is to automate tasks to increase productivity. Today, innovative new software techniques, often involving AI and machine learning, are finally allowing automation that has graduated from simple one- or two-step workflows to more complex processes integral to enterprises. The result is surging demand for modern automation software. Examining a company's long-term performance can provide clues about its quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Regrettably, Pegasystems's sales grew at a sluggish 8.8% compounded annual growth rate over the last three years. This was below our standard for the software sector and is a poor baseline for our analysis. This quarter, Pegasystems reported magnificent year-on-year revenue growth of 44.1%, and its $475.6 million of revenue beat Wall Street's estimates by 33.1%. Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to decline by 1.6% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last three years. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its products and services will face some demand challenges. Software is eating the world and there is virtually no industry left that has been untouched by it. That drives increasing demand for tools helping software developers do their jobs, whether it be monitoring critical cloud infrastructure, integrating audio and video functionality, or ensuring smooth content streaming. Click here to access a free report on our 3 favorite stocks to play this generational megatrend. The customer acquisition cost (CAC) payback period represents the months required to recover the cost of acquiring a new customer. Essentially, it's the break-even point for sales and marketing investments. A shorter CAC payback period is ideal, as it implies better returns on investment and business scalability. Pegasystems's recent customer acquisition efforts haven't yielded returns as its CAC payback period was negative this quarter, meaning its incremental sales and marketing investments outpaced its revenue. The company's inefficiency indicates it operates in a highly competitive environment where there is little differentiation between Pegasystems's products and its peers. We were impressed by how significantly Pegasystems blew past analysts' revenue and EPS expectations this quarter. Zooming out, we think this was a solid quarter. The stock traded up 22.8% to $84.50 immediately after reporting. Pegasystems had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn't necessarily make the stock a buy. Let's see if this is a good investment. The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free. Sign in to access your portfolio
