SAP (NYSE:SAP) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $174.62, but opened at $184.23. SAP shares last traded at $184.37, with a volume of 1,389,870 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on SAP shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded SAP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Zacks Research downgraded SAP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a research note on Friday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of SAP in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Finally, HSBC raised SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.00.

SAP Trading Up 2.9%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $175.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $211.86. The company has a market capitalization of $220.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.11.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The software maker reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $11.06 billion for the quarter. SAP had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 20.08%. Sell-side analysts expect that SAP SE will post 8.35 earnings per share for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th were issued a dividend of $2.9291 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 5th. This is a positive change from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.54. This represents a dividend yield of 170.0%. SAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.92%.

Institutional Trading of SAP

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in SAP in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Copia Wealth Management bought a new position in SAP in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its stake in SAP by 109.4% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 111 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Bayban bought a new position in SAP during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Guerra Advisors Inc bought a new position in SAP during the third quarter worth about $31,000.

SAP Company 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.