SAP (NYSE:SAP) Upgraded to “Outperform” by BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of SAP (NYSE:SAP) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note published on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $237.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $218.00.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on SAP. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an overweight rating for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of SAP from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. They set an outperform rating and a $227.00 target price for the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of SAP from $212.00 to $210.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of SAP from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $220.20.

SAP Stock Performance

SAP stock opened at $201.71 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. SAP has a 1 year low of $126.75 and a 1 year high of $204.33. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $189.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $180.31.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The software maker reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $8.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.73 billion. SAP had a return on equity of 9.79% and a net margin of 15.76%. As a group, research analysts expect that SAP will post 4.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a dividend of $2.3852 per share. This is an increase from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.19. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.9%. SAP’s payout ratio is presently 37.53%.

Institutional Trading of SAP

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in SAP in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in SAP in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new stake in SAP in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in SAP in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Adirondack Trust Co. increased its stake in SAP by 121.1% in the fourth quarter. Adirondack Trust Co. now owns 199 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the period.

SAP Company Profile

SAP SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides applications, technology, and services worldwide. It offers SAP S/4HANA that provides software capabilities for finance, risk and project management, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and asset management, and research and development; SAP SuccessFactors solutions for human resources, including HR and payroll, talent and employee experience management, and people and workforce analytics; and spend management solutions that covers direct and indirect spend, travel and expense, and external workforce management.