SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Shares Bought by Optas LLC

Optas LLC raised its position in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 7.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,343 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Optas LLC’s holdings in SAP were worth $457,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of SAP. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in SAP by 213.0% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,420,255 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $183,507,000 after purchasing an additional 966,450 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of SAP by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 9,947,613 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,537,251,000 after buying an additional 746,386 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of SAP by 19,468.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 482,762 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $62,430,000 after purchasing an additional 480,295 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in SAP during the fourth quarter worth about $17,255,000. Finally, Brandes Investment Partners LP grew its holdings in SAP by 49.7% in the fourth quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 300,129 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $46,397,000 after purchasing an additional 99,652 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays cut their target price on shares of SAP from $212.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. JMP Securities upped their target price on SAP from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. KeyCorp initiated coverage on SAP in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of SAP in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $227.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of SAP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $220.20.

SAP Price Performance

SAP traded up $0.96 during trading on Friday, hitting $201.71. 843,472 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 807,033. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $189.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $180.61. SAP SE has a 1 year low of $126.75 and a 1 year high of $204.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The software maker reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $8.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.73 billion. SAP had a net margin of 15.76% and a return on equity of 9.79%. Sell-side analysts expect that SAP SE will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $2.3852 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This is a positive change from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.19. This represents a yield of 0.9%. SAP’s payout ratio is 37.53%.

SAP Profile

SAP SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides applications, technology, and services worldwide. It offers SAP S/4HANA that provides software capabilities for finance, risk and project management, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and asset management, and research and development; SAP SuccessFactors solutions for human resources, including HR and payroll, talent and employee experience management, and people and workforce analytics; and spend management solutions that covers direct and indirect spend, travel and expense, and external workforce management.