SAP (NYSE:SAP) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) shares gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $181.79, but opened at $193.97. SAP shares last traded at $192.7140, with a volume of 1,098,504 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of SAP in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. HSBC raised shares of SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of SAP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of SAP from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered shares of SAP from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, SAP has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $288.00.

SAP Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $234.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $172.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $206.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 27th. The software maker reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter. SAP had a net margin of 20.08% and a return on equity of 17.31%. The firm had revenue of $11.06 billion for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that SAP SE will post 8.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th were paid a $2.9291 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 170.0%. This is a positive change from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.54. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 5th. SAP’s payout ratio is 28.92%.

Institutional Trading of SAP

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SAP in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of SAP by 109.4% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 111 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Bayban purchased a new stake in shares of SAP in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Guerra Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in shares of SAP in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Community Bank N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of SAP in the third quarter valued at about $32,000.

SAP Company Profile

SAP SE is a global enterprise software company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers, the company’s name is an acronym for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing). SAP develops and sells software and services that help organizations manage business processes across finance, human resources, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and customer relationships.

SAP’s product portfolio spans on?premises and cloud offerings, anchored by its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as SAP S/4HANA and the SAP HANA in?memory database and platform.