SAP SE $SAP Stock Holdings Lowered by Polen Capital Management LLC

Key Points

• Polen Capital Management reduced its SAP stake by 32.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 111,620 shares and leaving it with 233,332 shares worth about $56.7 million.
• Institutional activity around SAP remains mixed, with several firms increasing holdings, including Fisher Asset Management, Bank of America, Windacre Partnership, and JPMorgan Chase.
• SAP shares were under pressure amid Oracle’s aggressive AI spending plans and a reported Goldman Sachs gross margin forecast cut, though the company is also advancing AI initiatives in India and received multiple analyst ratings that still average to Moderate Buy.

Polen Capital Management LLC cut its position in SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Free Report) by 32.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 233,332 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 111,620 shares during the quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC's holdings in SAP were worth $56,679,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SAP. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of SAP by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 14,728,881 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $3,577,793,000 after purchasing an additional 179,550 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of SAP by 58.1% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,650,418 shares of the software maker's stock worth $805,992,000 after buying an additional 973,779 shares during the period. Windacre Partnership LLC grew its holdings in SAP by 130.9% in the 3rd quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 2,357,225 shares of the software maker's stock worth $629,874,000 after buying an additional 1,336,325 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in SAP by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,560,994 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $417,113,000 after buying an additional 49,111 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of SAP by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,200,024 shares of the software maker's stock worth $291,498,000 after acquiring an additional 83,349 shares during the period.

Key Stories Impacting SAP

Here are the key news stories impacting SAP this week:

• Positive Sentiment: SAP and Deloitte launched an AI-led delivery center in Bengaluru that could add up to 500 AI specialists, reinforcing SAP’s push into enterprise AI and expanding its India talent base. Deloitte-SAP launch Bengaluru hub, to add up to 500 AI specialists
• Positive Sentiment: SAP is highlighting India as a major future AI market, with CEO Christian Klein saying the country could become a frontrunner in applying AI in industry, which supports the company’s long-term growth narrative there. SAP CEO Christian Klein says India a future AI frontrunner
• Positive Sentiment: SAP released patches for multiple critical vulnerabilities, which may help reduce security risk for customers and protect enterprise confidence in its software platform. Ivanti, Fortinet, and SAP Release Patches for Multiple Critical Vulnerabilities
• Neutral Sentiment: SAP’s presentation at the Bank of America Global Research C-Suite TMT Conference likely offered updates on strategy and operations, but no major new catalyst was evident from the transcript headline alone. SAP SE (SAP) Presents at Bank of America Global Research C-Suite TMT Conference Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: SAP shares weakened after Oracle unveiled aggressive AI investment plans, stoking concerns that a rival could spend heavily to compete more directly in enterprise software and AI. SAP shares retreat after Oracle unveils aggressive AI investment plans (SAP)
• Negative Sentiment: Goldman Sachs reportedly lowered its gross margin forecast for SAP, citing rising hardware costs, which could pressure profitability expectations. SAP falls as Goldman lowers gross margin forecast on rising hardware costs
• Negative Sentiment: Separately, SAP’s stock was also hit by the broader software-sector reaction to Oracle’s spending surge, with investors interpreting the higher AI capex environment as a potential threat to margins and competition. SAP stock tumbles 3%: why Oracle's AI capex surge is hitting software shares

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Santander raised SAP from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. HSBC upgraded SAP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Zacks Research cut SAP from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Piper Sandler cut shares of SAP from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of SAP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, SAP presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $283.40.

SAP Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of NYSE SAP opened at $163.59 on Friday. 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 SE has a 12 month low of $158.58 and a 12 month high of $313.28. The company has a market cap of $200.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $202.83.

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

SAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th were issued a dividend of $2.9291 per share. This is an increase from SAP's previous annual dividend of $2.54. This represents a dividend yield of 170.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 5th. SAP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.92%.

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.

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