Federated Hermes Inc. Acquires 11,712 Shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 16.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 83,562 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,712 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in SAP were worth $12,918,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in SAP by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,437 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $222,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in SAP by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,361 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. raised its holdings in SAP by 4.9% in the third quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 1,704 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $219,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in SAP by 1.8% in the third quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,586 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $593,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Argonautica Private Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in SAP by 3.5% in the third quarter. Argonautica Private Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,446 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $316,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter.

SAP Stock Up 5.5 %

SAP stock opened at $188.01 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. SAP SE has a one year low of $126.75 and a one year high of $199.29. The business’s fifty day moving average is $187.41 and its 200 day moving average is $165.13.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The software maker reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.29 by ($0.17). SAP had a net margin of 15.76% and a return on equity of 9.81%. The business had revenue of $9.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.98 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that SAP SE will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $2.3852 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This is a boost from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.19. This represents a dividend yield of 0.9%. SAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.92%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on SAP from $147.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. JMP Securities increased their target price on SAP from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on SAP from $185.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. StockNews.com cut SAP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, KeyCorp started coverage on SAP in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.00.

SAP Company 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.