SAP (NYSE:SAP) Rating Increased to Buy at HSBC

HSBC upgraded shares of SAP (NYSE:SAP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports.

Several other brokerages have also commented on SAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of SAP from $283.00 to $256.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of SAP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered shares of SAP from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, SAP has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $290.25.

SAP Stock Down 1.2%

SAP opened at $174.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The company’s 50-day moving average is $184.90 and its 200 day moving average is $223.81. SAP has a fifty-two week low of $160.66 and a fifty-two week high of $313.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $214.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.71, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.24.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The software maker reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $11.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.77 billion. SAP had a net margin of 19.92% and a return on equity of 16.54%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.40 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that SAP will post 8.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th will be given a $2.9291 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 175.0%. This is an increase from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.54. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 5th. SAP’s payout ratio is presently 26.10%.

Institutional Trading of SAP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. First PREMIER Bank bought a new stake in shares of SAP in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of SAP in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Copia Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of SAP in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of SAP by 109.4% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 111 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Bayban bought a new stake in shares of SAP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000.

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.