Brandes Investment Partners LP Purchases 2,506,058 Shares of Open Text Corporation $OTEX

Brandes Investment Partners LP increased its position in Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) by 42.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,368,336 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,506,058 shares during the period. Open Text comprises about 2.2% of Brandes Investment Partners LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Brandes Investment Partners LP owned 3.29% of Open Text worth $244,356,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Open Text by 926.0% during the first quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 49,999 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,276,000 after buying an additional 45,126 shares in the last quarter. Korea Investment CORP boosted its position in Open Text by 107.7% during the 1st quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 188,444 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,755,000 after acquiring an additional 97,700 shares during the period. Value Partners Investments Inc. grew its stake in Open Text by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 2,561,601 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $74,709,000 after acquiring an additional 228,062 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new position in shares of Open Text in the 2nd quarter valued at about $302,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Open Text by 25.7% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 375,844 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $9,486,000 after purchasing an additional 76,865 shares in the last quarter. 70.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Open Text Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of Open Text stock opened at $33.73 on Tuesday. Open Text Corporation has a 12-month low of $22.79 and a 12-month high of $39.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $36.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.44 and a beta of 1.14.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.27 billion. Open Text had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 22.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Open Text Corporation will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Open Text Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio is 57.59%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on OTEX shares. National Bank Financial raised shares of Open Text from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. CIBC increased their price objective on Open Text from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. TD Securities cut Open Text from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Open Text from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.42.

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.