SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Short Interest Update
by Doug Wharley · The Cerbat GemSAP SE (NYSE:SAP – Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 5,743,046 shares, a growth of 24.0% from the March 15th total of 4,632,979 shares. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,862,725 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days.
SAP Price Performance
Shares of SAP stock traded up $3.63 on Friday, hitting $181.04. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,647,388 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,116,166. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16. SAP has a 1 year low of $160.66 and a 1 year high of $313.28. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $186.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $226.07. The company has a market capitalization of $222.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.24.
SAP (NYSE:SAP – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The software maker reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.13. SAP had a return on equity of 16.54% and a net margin of 19.92%.The firm had revenue of $11.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.40 EPS. SAP’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that SAP will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
SAP Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 5th will be paid a $2.9291 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 5th. This represents a dividend yield of 175.0%. This is a boost from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.54. SAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.10%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on SAP shares. Zacks Research lowered SAP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Piper Sandler lowered SAP from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup lowered SAP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Barclays set a $283.00 price objective on SAP in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered SAP from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SAP has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $297.00.
Check Out Our Latest Report on SAP
Hedge Funds Weigh In On SAP
Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Krilogy Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of SAP by 68.3% in the 1st quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 4,038 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $716,000 after purchasing an additional 1,638 shares in the last quarter. Anchyra Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of SAP by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Anchyra Partners LLC now owns 2,287 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $392,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Birch Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in SAP by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Birch Financial Group LLC now owns 2,593 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $444,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp boosted its holdings in SAP by 34.3% in the 1st quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 15,450 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,645,000 after buying an additional 3,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in SAP by 1,374.1% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 57,299 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $9,810,000 after buying an additional 53,412 shares during the last quarter.
About SAP
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.