Cerity Partners LLC Increases Stock Holdings in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 72,583 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 6,287 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in SAP were worth $17,471,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of SAP. Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in SAP by 38.9% during the 4th quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,486 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,074,000 after acquiring an additional 3,495 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in SAP by 208.2% during the 4th quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,367 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,030,000 after acquiring an additional 11,057 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in SAP by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 548,469 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $125,654,000 after acquiring an additional 7,667 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of SAP by 152.0% in the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 414,154 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $101,969,000 after buying an additional 249,824 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of SAP by 98.9% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 2,572 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $633,000 after buying an additional 1,279 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on SAP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $38.00 price target on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Kepler Capital Markets raised SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. JMP Securities upped 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. Barclays upped their target price on SAP from $283.00 to $286.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on SAP from $265.00 to $307.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $248.83.

SAP Stock Up 9.5 %

Shares of SAP opened at $260.11 on Thursday. SAP SE has a 52 week low of $175.08 and a 52 week high of $293.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $319.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.63, a PEG ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $273.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $253.77.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last issued 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 return on equity of 12.18% and a net margin of 9.17%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that SAP SE will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

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

SAP 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.