Raymond James Financial Inc. Acquires New Stake in Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 126,130 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,572,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Open Text by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 677,709 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $19,170,000 after purchasing an additional 5,177 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Open Text during the fourth quarter worth approximately $138,000. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. acquired a new stake in Open Text in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $241,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Open Text by 16.7% in the fourth quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 55,240 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,564,000 after acquiring an additional 7,910 shares during the last quarter. Finally, K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Open Text in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $537,000. 70.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Open Text Stock Down 1.2 %

OTEX stock opened at $26.49 on Friday. Open Text Co. has a 52 week low of $24.86 and a 52 week high of $39.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company has a market cap of $6.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.77 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $27.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.57.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.10. Open Text had a return on equity of 23.23% and a net margin of 12.21%. On average, research analysts expect that Open Text Co. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $0.2625 per share. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Open Text’s payout ratio is 42.68%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on OTEX. StockNews.com cut Open Text from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group began coverage on Open Text in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of Open Text from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Sunday, February 9th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.18.

Open Text Profile

Open Text Corporation provides information management software and solutions. The company offers content services, which includes content collaboration and intelligent capture to records management, collaboration, e-signatures, and archiving; and operates experience cloud platform that provides customer experience and web content management, digital asset management, customer analytics, AI and insights, e-discovery, digital fax, omnichannel communications, secure messaging, and voice of customer, as well as customer journey, testing, and segmentation.