What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after analysts suggested that the recent "SaaSpocalypse" sell-off had pushed valuations into deeply oversold territory, sparking a wave of opportunistic buying.
While the sector had been hammered in early 2026 by fears that autonomous AI agents would replace traditional seat-based subscriptions, institutional investors began rotating back into "sticky" incumbents. This shift was fueled by a Barclays report arguing that corporate transitions away from legacy systems take years, not weeks, providing a protective moat for established providers in compliance and governance.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Automation Software company Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) jumped 5.5%. Is now the time to buy Pegasystems? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Cloud Monitoring company Nutanix (NASDAQ:NTNX) jumped 3.2%. Is now the time to buy Nutanix? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Advertising Software company LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) jumped 3%. Is now the time to buy LiveRamp? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Network Security company Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) jumped 4.6%. Is now the time to buy Palo Alto Networks? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Video Conferencing company Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM) jumped 3.3%. Is now the time to buy Zoom? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Pegasystems (PEGA)
Pegasystems’s shares are quite volatile and have had 18 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 6 days ago when the stock dropped 8.4% on the news that a broad sell-off swept through the software sector, driven by growing concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence. This led to institutional repositioning as traders pivot away from traditional SaaS providers in favor of companies with more defensible, AI-integrated moats. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index declined by 0.8%, while the broader S&P 500 also slipped.
Pegasystems is down 25.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $41.97 per share, it is trading 37% below its 52-week high of $66.64 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Pegasystems’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $582.97.
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