Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on SAP (NYSE:SAP)

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 7,476 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 42% compared to the average volume of 5,260 put options.

SAP Stock Down 3.6%

SAP stock traded down $5.58 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $148.76. The company had a trading volume of 2,000,267 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,170,303. The stock has a market cap of $182.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.16, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.14. SAP has a 1 year low of $148.06 and a 1 year high of $299.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The business has a fifty day moving average of $166.38 and a 200 day moving average of $185.91.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The software maker reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $11.06 billion during the quarter. SAP had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 20.08%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that SAP will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of SAP from $257.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. HSBC raised SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded SAP from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of SAP in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded shares of SAP from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $270.83.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SAP

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Windacre Partnership LLC grew its holdings in shares of SAP by 130.9% during the third quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 2,357,225 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $629,874,000 after buying an additional 1,336,325 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of SAP by 58.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,650,418 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $805,992,000 after purchasing an additional 973,779 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of SAP in the first quarter valued at approximately $150,701,000. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of SAP by 1,126.3% during the third quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 842,416 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $225,102,000 after purchasing an additional 773,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of SAP by 1,582.7% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 817,295 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $198,529,000 after purchasing an additional 768,725 shares during the period.

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.