Cooke & Bieler LP Sells 3,076,710 Shares of Open Text Corporation $OTEX

Key Points

• Cooke & Bieler LP sharply reduced its Open Text stake, selling 3,076,710 shares in the fourth quarter and cutting its position by 71.9%. The fund ended with 1,202,951 shares worth about $39.2 million.
• Open Text reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $1.01 versus the $0.94 consensus and revenue of $1.28 billion versus $1.26 billion expected. Revenue rose 2.2% year over year.
• The company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.275 per share, or $1.10 annualized, implying a 4.7% yield. Meanwhile, analysts have a mixed view, with a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.67.

Cooke & Bieler LP decreased its position in shares of Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ:OTEX - Free Report) TSE: OTC by 71.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,202,951 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 3,076,710 shares during the quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP owned 0.48% of Open Text worth $39,192,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Open Text by 2.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,689,086 shares of the software maker's stock worth $436,926,000 after acquiring an additional 229,758 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Open Text by 9.3% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 9,027,450 shares of the software maker's stock worth $337,445,000 after acquiring an additional 765,366 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in shares of Open Text by 14.1% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,295,347 shares of the software maker's stock worth $123,149,000 after acquiring an additional 406,335 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Open Text by 48.9% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,592,578 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $96,914,000 after buying an additional 851,303 shares during the period. Finally, New South Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Open Text by 0.3% in the third quarter. New South Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,343,774 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $87,610,000 after buying an additional 7,199 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.37% of the company's stock.

Open Text Stock Performance

Shares of OTEX stock opened at $23.47 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $5.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.45 and a beta of 1.04. Open Text Corporation has a 52 week low of $20.00 and a 52 week high of $39.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $22.73 and a 200-day moving average of $27.46.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX - Get Free Report) TSE: OTC last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The software maker reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.07. Open Text had a net margin of 9.91% and a return on equity of 24.77%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.82 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Open Text Corporation will post 3.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Open Text Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 19th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Open Text's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OTEX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Open Text from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Open Text from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group set a $25.00 target price on shares of Open Text in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Open Text from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Open Text from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Open Text presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $34.67.

Open Text Company Profile

Open Text Corporation is a Canadian enterprise information management (EIM) software company that develops solutions for organizations seeking to manage, protect and extract insight from their unstructured and structured data. The company's platform encompasses document management, records management, digital asset management and archiving, enabling companies to govern information across its lifecycle.

Open Text's product suite includes content services, business process management, customer experience management, analytics and security products.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding OTEX? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ:OTEX - Free Report) TSE: OTC.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.