SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Short Interest Update

Key Points

• SAP’s short interest fell 37.4% to 5.03 million shares as of August 31, representing just 0.4% of shares outstanding and a days-to-cover ratio of 2.1.
• Institutional ownership increased, with several firms adding to their positions and Arrowstreet Capital establishing a new stake valued at approximately $150.7 million.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with SAP holding a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $255.67, despite the company’s latest quarterly EPS missing estimates.

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totaling 5,026,190 shares, a decline of 37.4% from the August 15th total of 8,024,204 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,432,692 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.1 days. Currently, 0.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of SAP

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in SAP by 59.7% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,091 shares of the software maker's stock worth $3,097,000 after buying an additional 6,763 shares in the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new position in shares of SAP during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,306,000. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. grew its stake in shares of SAP by 1,532.8% during the 1st quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. now owns 749,909 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $128,392,000 after acquiring an additional 703,982 shares during the period. Moran Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in SAP by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 27,971 shares of the software maker's stock worth $4,789,000 after acquiring an additional 6,498 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in SAP during the 1st quarter worth approximately $150,701,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of SAP in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on SAP from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Argus set a $265.00 price objective on SAP in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of SAP from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, SAP presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $255.67.

SAP Trading Down 0.5%

SAP stock traded down $1.02 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $214.65. The company had a trading volume of 267,666 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,093,491. The stock has a market cap of $263.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.94, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.14. SAP has a 52 week low of $144.97 and a 52 week high of $281.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $193.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $181.03.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The software maker reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.00 by ($0.18). The firm had revenue of $11.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.30 billion. SAP had a return on equity of 17.07% and a net margin of 20.88%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.50 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that SAP will post 8.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About SAP

SAP SE is a German enterprise software company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. The company develops technology that helps organizations manage core business operations, including finance, procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, human resources, sales and customer relationships.

SAP's portfolio is centered on its cloud-based enterprise resource planning platform, SAP S/4HANA, along with the SAP Business Technology Platform. Its products and services also include SAP SuccessFactors for human resources, SAP Ariba for business-to-business procurement, SAP Concur for travel and expense management, and solutions for customer experience, data management, analytics and artificial intelligence.

SAP was founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees and has grown into a global provider of business software.

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