SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $283.40.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Santander upgraded SAP from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered SAP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of SAP from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of SAP from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th.

SAP Stock Performance

NYSE:SAP opened at $157.59 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.60 billion, a PE ratio of 21.30, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.14. SAP has a 1 year low of $148.06 and a 1 year high of $313.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $168.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $191.43.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The software maker reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $11.06 billion during the quarter. SAP had a net margin of 20.08% and a return on equity of 17.31%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that SAP will post 8.33 EPS for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a dividend yield of 170.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 5th. This is a positive change from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.54. SAP’s payout ratio is presently 28.92%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SAP

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in SAP by 91.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 2,633 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $648,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of SAP during the 1st quarter worth approximately $242,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of SAP by 49.0% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 16,309 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,378,000 after purchasing an additional 5,363 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC bought a new stake in shares of SAP during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,681,000. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of SAP by 2.3% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,050 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $928,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in 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.