First Merchants Corp Takes $2.93 Million Position in SAP SE $SAP

First Merchants Corp acquired a new position in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 10,971 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $2,932,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of SAP by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 14,157,321 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,305,242,000 after buying an additional 1,163,616 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in SAP by 58.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,650,418 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $805,992,000 after acquiring an additional 973,779 shares during the last quarter. Trivest Advisors Ltd acquired a new position in SAP during the second quarter valued at approximately $52,305,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in SAP by 195.0% during the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 221,349 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $67,312,000 after purchasing an additional 146,325 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in SAP by 282.0% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 124,322 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $37,806,000 after purchasing an additional 91,781 shares in the last quarter.

SAP Stock Performance

SAP opened at $237.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $295.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.18. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $245.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $268.35. SAP SE has a 1 year low of $233.51 and a 1 year high of $313.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The software maker reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.17. SAP had a return on equity of 15.69% and a net margin of 19.50%.The company had revenue of $10.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. SAP’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that SAP SE will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SAP. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on SAP from $330.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Oddo Bhf raised SAP from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of SAP in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of SAP in a report on Friday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, SAP has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.33.

SAP Profile

SAP SE is a global enterprise software company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers, the company’s name is an acronym for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing). SAP develops and sells software and services that help organizations manage business processes across finance, human resources, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and customer relationships.

SAP’s product portfolio spans on‑premises and cloud offerings, anchored by its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as SAP S/4HANA and the SAP HANA in‑memory database and platform.