Franklin Resources Inc. Sells 32,776 Shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

Franklin Resources Inc. decreased its holdings in Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX - Free Report) TSE: OTC by 15.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 173,115 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 32,776 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.07% of Open Text worth $4,893,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of OTEX. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in Open Text by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 11,093 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $369,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Open Text during the third quarter worth approximately $324,000. Stifel Financial Corp bought a new position in shares of Open Text in the third quarter valued at $2,232,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Open Text by 45.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 200,305 shares of the software maker's stock worth $6,675,000 after acquiring an additional 62,871 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Open Text during the third quarter valued at $1,521,000. 70.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Open Text from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Open Text in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $32.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com cut Open Text from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Open Text from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $35.18.

Open Text Stock Performance

Shares of OTEX stock traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $25.58. 154,201 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 807,898. Open Text Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.79 and a fifty-two week high of $36.39. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $26.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.40 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX - Get Free Report) TSE: OTC last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.10. Open Text had a net margin of 12.21% and a return on equity of 23.23%. Analysts predict that Open Text Co. will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.2625 dividend. This is a boost from Open Text's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.10%. Open Text's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.68%.

Open Text Profile

Open Text Corporation provides information management software and solutions. The company offers content services, which includes content collaboration and intelligent capture to records management, collaboration, e-signatures, and archiving; and operates experience cloud platform that provides customer experience and web content management, digital asset management, customer analytics, AI and insights, e-discovery, digital fax, omnichannel communications, secure messaging, and voice of customer, as well as customer journey, testing, and segmentation.