Royal Bank of Canada Raises Stake in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Free Report) by 4.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 758,241 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 35,721 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 0.06% of SAP worth $186,688,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SAP. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SAP during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in shares of SAP in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of SAP by 2,700.0% during the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 112 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Albion Financial Group UT lifted its position in SAP by 122.4% in the 4th quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 129 shares of the software maker's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new stake in SAP in the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SAP. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on SAP in a research note on Tuesday. They issued an "overweight" rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $38.00 price objective on shares of SAP in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus restated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of SAP in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $308.00 target price (up previously from $286.00) on shares of SAP in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, SAP currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $264.00.

SAP Stock Performance

SAP stock traded down $0.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $298.60. 761,594 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,046,559. SAP SE has a 52-week low of $179.43 and a 52-week high of $303.40. The stock's 50-day moving average is $273.76 and its 200 day moving average is $264.04. The stock has a market cap of $366.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 104.04, a PEG ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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

SAP Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $2.5423 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from SAP's previous annual dividend of $2.39. SAP's 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.