Sapient Capital LLC Buys New Stake in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,748 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $270,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in SAP by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,864,247 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $758,364,000 after buying an additional 122,135 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of SAP by 58.2% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,700,206 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $524,270,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729,492 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of SAP by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,750,865 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $283,862,000 after purchasing an additional 238,039 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of SAP by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,362,893 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $305,569,000 after purchasing an additional 38,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of SAP by 213.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,420,255 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $183,507,000 after purchasing an additional 966,450 shares in the last quarter.

SAP Stock Performance

SAP stock opened at $180.25 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $187.31 and a 200-day moving average of $162.97. SAP SE has a twelve month low of $126.40 and a twelve month high of $199.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The software maker reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by ($0.17). SAP had a net margin of 20.30% and a return on equity of 9.54%. The business had revenue of $9.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.98 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that SAP SE will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $2.3852 per share. This represents a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This is a positive change from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.19. SAP’s payout ratio is currently 27.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on SAP. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of SAP from $185.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. StockNews.com raised SAP from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays raised their target price on SAP from $189.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, SAP presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $193.80.

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.