SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its holdings in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 15.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 519,101 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 92,471 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in SAP were worth $127,808,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Foster Group Inc. boosted its position in SAP by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 1,089 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $268,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in SAP by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 1,927 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $485,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its position in SAP by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 4,325 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,065,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc boosted its position in SAP by 1.3% during the third quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 3,994 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $915,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton boosted its position in SAP by 5.0% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 1,100 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on SAP. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of SAP from $265.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. TD Cowen raised shares of SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $240.00 to $305.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of SAP from $283.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of SAP from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 target price on shares of SAP in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $248.83.

SAP Price Performance

SAP stock opened at $292.51 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $263.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $239.31. The company has a market capitalization of $359.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 1.23. SAP SE has a 1 year low of $174.88 and a 1 year high of $293.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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 net margin of 9.17% and a return on equity of 12.18%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that SAP SE will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

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.