LPL Financial LLC Buys 1,479 Shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) by 8.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,509 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,479 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Open Text were worth $524,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Open Text in the third quarter worth $499,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Open Text by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 205,891 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,086,000 after acquiring an additional 34,135 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Open Text by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,921 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $563,000 after acquiring an additional 1,049 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in Open Text during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,372,000. Finally, Canoe Financial LP grew its position in shares of Open Text by 127.3% in the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 150,000 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,242,000 after purchasing an additional 84,000 shares during the last quarter. 70.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on OTEX. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities reduced their price objective on Open Text from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Sunday, February 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Open Text from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Open Text from $36.00 to $29.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Open Text from $31.00 to $30.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Open Text has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.45.

Open Text Stock Performance

NASDAQ:OTEX opened at $26.87 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $25.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.98 billion, a PE ratio of 10.92 and a beta of 1.13. Open Text Co. has a 12-month low of $22.79 and a 12-month high of $36.25.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.10. Open Text had a return on equity of 23.23% and a net margin of 12.21%. Research analysts anticipate that Open Text Co. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.2625 dividend. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Open Text’s payout ratio is currently 42.68%.

Open Text Profile

Open Text Corporation provides information management software and solutions. The company offers content services, which includes content collaboration and intelligent capture to records management, collaboration, e-signatures, and archiving; and operates experience cloud platform that provides customer experience and web content management, digital asset management, customer analytics, AI and insights, e-discovery, digital fax, omnichannel communications, secure messaging, and voice of customer, as well as customer journey, testing, and segmentation.