Bailard Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

Bailard Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 15,910 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 78 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in SAP were worth $2,460,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SAP. Column Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of SAP by 121.0% in the third quarter. Column Capital Advisors LLC now owns 221 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of SAP in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of SAP in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of SAP by 376.1% in the third quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 319 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of SAP by 84.7% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 338 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on SAP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of SAP from $185.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of SAP from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of SAP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of SAP from $215.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.20.

SAP Stock Performance

Shares of SAP stock traded up $1.56 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $186.65. The stock had a trading volume of 151,834 shares, compared to its average volume of 770,606. SAP SE has a 12-month low of $126.75 and a 12-month high of $199.29. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $187.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $165.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The software maker reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by ($0.17). The company had revenue of $9.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.98 billion. SAP had a return on equity of 9.81% and a net margin of 15.76%. Research analysts expect that SAP SE will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $2.3852 dividend. This is a positive change from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.19. This represents a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. SAP’s payout ratio is currently 34.92%.

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.