Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of SAP Put Options (NYSE:SAP)

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 6,781 put options on the stock. Thisrepresentsanincreaseofapproximately217% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,141 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SAP

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in SAP by 3.8% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,662,809 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $446,364,000 after buying an additional 60,261 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of SAP by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,512,724 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $406,076,000 after purchasing an additional 40,926 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of SAP by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,318,908 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $354,048,000 after purchasing an additional 80,164 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of SAP by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,314,814 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $323,720,000 after purchasing an additional 70,613 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of SAP by 31,239.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,306,229 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $350,644,000 after purchasing an additional 1,302,061 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on SAP shares. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of SAP in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. UBS Group upgraded SAP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on SAP from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. JMP Securities upped their price objective on SAP from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on SAP in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued an “overweight” rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, SAP has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $281.67.

SAP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SAP opened at $276.08 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $339.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. SAP has a 1-year low of $208.24 and a 1-year high of $313.28. The business’s 50 day moving average is $297.04 and its 200-day moving average is $285.10.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The software maker reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $10.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.10 billion. SAP had a return on equity of 14.84% and a net margin of 18.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.10 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that SAP will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

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.