SAP (NYSE:SAP) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of SAP (NYSE:SAP) in a research report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on SAP. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of SAP in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of SAP from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $38.00 price objective on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on SAP from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SAP currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $264.00.

SAP Stock Performance

SAP opened at $299.11 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $273.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $264.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $367.46 billion, a PE ratio of 104.22, a P/E/G ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.35. SAP has a 1 year low of $179.43 and a 1 year high of $303.40.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The software maker reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.12. SAP had a net margin of 9.17% and a return on equity of 12.18%. The firm had revenue of $10.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.08 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that SAP will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a $2.5423 dividend. This represents a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This is an increase from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.39. SAP’s payout ratio is 35.25%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SAP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SAP. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in SAP by 31,239.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,306,229 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $350,644,000 after buying an additional 1,302,061 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of SAP in the 4th quarter valued at $290,023,000. TD Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of SAP by 125.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,602,548 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $394,563,000 after acquiring an additional 890,157 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in SAP by 145.5% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,346,506 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $331,523,000 after acquiring an additional 798,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in SAP by 91.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,471,798 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $362,371,000 after purchasing an additional 701,880 shares in the last quarter.

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.