Rakuten Securities Inc. Boosts Stake in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Free Report) by 1,300.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,568 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 1,456 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc.'s holdings in SAP were worth $421,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of SAP by 152.0% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 414,154 shares of the software maker's stock worth $101,969,000 after acquiring an additional 249,824 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its stake 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 valued at $633,000 after purchasing an additional 1,279 shares in the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of SAP by 164.4% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,681 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,667 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its position in SAP by 89.4% in the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 5,511 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,357,000 after purchasing an additional 2,601 shares during the period. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV bought a new stake in SAP in the fourth quarter worth $518,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $308.00 price objective (up from $286.00) on shares of SAP in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on SAP in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. They set an "overweight" rating on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and issued a $330.00 price target on shares of SAP in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. UBS Group upgraded SAP to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Argus restated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of SAP in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SAP presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $271.83.

SAP Trading Down 1.1%

SAP stock traded down $3.35 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $292.49. The company had a trading volume of 727,731 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,062,524. The company has a market cap of $359.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 101.91, a PEG ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The business has a 50 day moving average of $287.87 and a 200 day moving average of $273.21. SAP SE has a 52 week low of $188.17 and a 52 week high of $311.40.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The software maker reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $10.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.08 billion. SAP had a return on equity of 12.18% and a net margin of 9.17%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that SAP SE will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a $2.5423 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. This is an increase from SAP's previous annual dividend of $2.39. SAP's dividend payout ratio is currently 35.25%.

About SAP

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.