SAP (NYSE:SAP) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $174.62, but opened at $184.23. SAP shares last traded at $184.37, with a volume of 1,389,870 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Santander upgraded SAP from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered SAP from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Finally, Citigroup lowered SAP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.00.

SAP Stock Up 0.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $174.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.11.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 27th. The software maker reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $11.06 billion for the quarter. SAP had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 20.08%. On average, analysts predict that SAP SE will post 8.34 earnings per share for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 5th were paid a dividend of $2.9291 per share. This is a positive change from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.54. This represents a yield of 170.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 5th. SAP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.78%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SAP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Binnacle Investments Inc increased its stake in SAP by 14.2% during the third quarter. Binnacle Investments Inc now owns 338 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $90,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management increased its stake in SAP by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 740 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $180,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in SAP by 1.0% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,495 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,355,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC increased its stake in SAP by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC now owns 870 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $213,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Finally, Modera Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in SAP by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,912 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $950,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period.

SAP Company Profile

SAP SE is a global enterprise software company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers, the company’s name is an acronym for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing). SAP develops and sells software and services that help organizations manage business processes across finance, human resources, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and customer relationships.

SAP’s product portfolio spans on‑premises and cloud offerings, anchored by its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as SAP S/4HANA and the SAP HANA in‑memory database and platform.