SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Raises Dividend to $2.54 Per Share

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) announced an annual dividend on Monday, April 7th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of 2.5423 per share by the software maker on Friday, May 23rd. This represents a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This is a 6.6% increase from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.39.

SAP has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.8% per year over the last three years. SAP has a payout ratio of 31.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect SAP to earn $7.77 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.54 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.7%.

SAP Trading Down 3.0 %

NYSE SAP traded down $7.47 on Monday, hitting $241.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,495,374 shares, compared to its average volume of 947,794. The firm has a market cap of $296.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 83.98, a PEG ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.28. SAP has a 52-week low of $175.08 and a 52-week high of $293.70. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $276.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $253.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The software maker reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by ($0.02). SAP had a return on equity of 12.18% and a net margin of 9.17%. Research analysts predict that SAP will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SAP

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in SAP stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 91.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,633 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 1,255 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in SAP were worth $648,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on SAP shares. TD Cowen upgraded SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $240.00 to $305.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 target price on shares of SAP in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of SAP from $265.00 to $307.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of SAP from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of SAP from $283.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, SAP currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $248.83.

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.