Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,754 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 210 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in SAP were worth $1,663,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC increased its position in SAP by 22.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,246,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,347,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,866,468 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in SAP by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,118,138 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,260,137,000 after acquiring an additional 403,956 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in SAP during the fourth quarter valued at $290,023,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in SAP during the fourth quarter valued at $150,668,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in SAP by 0.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 611,572 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $140,111,000 after acquiring an additional 4,775 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on SAP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of SAP from $283.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $240.00 to $305.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Kepler Capital Markets upgraded shares of SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of SAP from $265.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $248.83.

SAP Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:SAP opened at $260.43 on Wednesday. SAP SE has a 1-year low of $175.08 and a 1-year high of $293.70. The company has a 50-day moving average of $272.58 and a 200 day moving average of $247.11. The firm has a market cap of $319.94 billion, a PE ratio of 90.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The software maker reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by ($0.02). SAP had a return on equity of 12.18% and a net margin of 9.17%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that SAP SE will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.