SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Short Interest Up 19.4% in March

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,690,000 shares, an increase of 19.4% from the March 15th total of 3,090,000 shares. Approximately 0.3% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,320,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of SAP by 448.0% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 274 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in SAP in the 3rd quarter valued at $227,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in SAP in the 3rd quarter valued at $494,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in SAP by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 10,944 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,507,000 after buying an additional 1,496 shares during the period. Finally, Decatur Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of SAP during the third quarter worth $220,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $38.00 price target on shares of SAP in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on SAP from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. TD Cowen raised SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $240.00 to $305.00 in a research report on Friday, January 17th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on SAP from $307.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Kepler Capital Markets raised SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $247.67.

SAP Price Performance

NYSE:SAP opened at $252.12 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. SAP has a 12-month low of $179.15 and a 12-month high of $293.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $268.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $255.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $309.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.28.

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

SAP Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a dividend of $2.5423 per share. This is an increase from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.39. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. SAP’s payout ratio is presently 64.11%.

About SAP

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.