Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) gapped down before the market opened on Friday after StockNews.com downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a hold rating. The stock had previously closed at $35.47, but opened at $30.44. Open Text shares last traded at $29.86, with a volume of 1,249,416 shares.

OTEX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Open Text from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Open Text from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Barclays lowered their price objective on Open Text from $44.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. National Bankshares cut their target price on shares of Open Text from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $53.00 price target on shares of Open Text in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Open Text presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.25.

Institutional Trading of Open Text

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Boston Partners raised its holdings in Open Text by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 60,137 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,527,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Open Text by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $92,000 after buying an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp raised its stake in Open Text by 6.9% in the first quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp now owns 8,232 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $319,000 after buying an additional 528 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in Open Text by 125.7% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 957 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 533 shares during the period. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new stake in Open Text during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Institutional investors own 70.37% of the company’s stock.

Open Text Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a PE ratio of 48.79 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.73.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The software maker reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. Open Text had a return on equity of 24.61% and a net margin of 2.85%. Research analysts forecast that Open Text Co. will post 4.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be paid a $0.435 dividend. This represents a $1.74 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.75%. This is a positive change from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 161.29%.

About Open Text

Open Text Corporation provides information management software and solutions. The company offers content services, which includes content collaboration and intelligent capture to records management, collaboration, e-signatures, and archiving; and operates experience cloud platform that provides customer experience and web content management, digital asset management, customer analytics, AI and insights, e-discovery, digital fax, omnichannel communications, secure messaging, and voice of customer, as well as customer journey, testing, and segmentation.