SAP (NYSE:SAP) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $206.36, but opened at $215.15. SAP shares last traded at $213.5480, with a volume of 338,864 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on SAP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of SAP in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Barclays cut their target price on SAP from $255.00 to $242.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings raised SAP from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of SAP in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Argus set a $265.00 price objective on SAP in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, SAP presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $255.67.

SAP Trading Down 1.1%

The firm has a market cap of $265.13 billion, a PE ratio of 27.11, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $193.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $181.03.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The software maker reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.00 by ($0.18). SAP had a return on equity of 17.07% and a net margin of 20.88%.The business had revenue of $11.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.50 earnings per share. SAP’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that SAP SE will post 8.17 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of SAP

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in SAP by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,304 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $509,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP grew its position in shares of SAP by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 888 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $216,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of SAP by 1.0% during the first quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 6,059 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,037,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its holdings in SAP by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 1,899 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $461,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, Baron Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in SAP by 3.9% in the first quarter. Baron Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,707 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the last quarter.

About SAP

SAP SE is a German enterprise software company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. The company develops technology that helps organizations manage core business operations, including finance, procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, human resources, sales and customer relationships.

SAP’s portfolio is centered on its cloud-based enterprise resource planning platform, SAP S/4HANA, along with the SAP Business Technology Platform. Its products and services also include SAP SuccessFactors for human resources, SAP Ariba for business-to-business procurement, SAP Concur for travel and expense management, and solutions for customer experience, data management, analytics and artificial intelligence.

SAP was founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees and has grown into a global provider of business software.