Stewart & Patten Co. LLC Acquires New Shares in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

Stewart & Patten Co. LLC acquired a new stake in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 1,082 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 746,386 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of SAP by 213.0% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,420,255 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $183,507,000 after buying an additional 966,450 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of SAP by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,086,658 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $167,987,000 after buying an additional 26,031 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in SAP by 4.0% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 812,028 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $105,012,000 after purchasing an additional 31,502 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in SAP by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 512,688 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $79,257,000 after purchasing an additional 6,999 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SAP. JMP Securities lifted their target price on SAP from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Barclays decreased their target price on SAP from $212.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on SAP in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $227.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered SAP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded SAP from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $218.00 to $237.00 in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, SAP currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $220.20.

SAP Stock Performance

Shares of SAP traded down $2.38 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $199.33. 753,356 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 774,544. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $189.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $180.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. SAP SE has a twelve month low of $126.75 and a twelve month high of $204.33.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The software maker reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.06). SAP had a return on equity of 9.79% and a net margin of 15.76%. The firm had revenue of $8.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.73 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that SAP SE will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

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

About SAP

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.