SAP (NYSE:SAP) Shares Gap Down - Here's Why

Key Points

• SAP shares gapped down, opening at $177.04 after a $185.01 close and last trading around $176.12 — roughly a 4.2% decline on elevated volume.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: MarketBeat shows a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with a consensus price target of $305.75, while several firms have recently downgraded the stock.
• SAP reported a quarter that beat expectations — $1.90 EPS versus $1.77 expected and $11.36B revenue versus $9.77B consensus — yet the stock fell despite the positive results.

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $185.01, but opened at $177.04. SAP shares last traded at $176.1150, with a volume of 1,469,344 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Weiss Ratings cut SAP from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of SAP in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup cut SAP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of SAP from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of SAP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $305.75.

SAP Stock Down 4.2%

The stock has a market capitalization of $217.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $209.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $239.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.16.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The software maker reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.13. SAP had a net margin of 19.92% and a return on equity of 16.54%. The company had revenue of $11.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that SAP SE will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Windacre Partnership LLC boosted its stake in SAP by 130.9% in the third quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 2,357,225 shares of the software maker's stock worth $629,874,000 after purchasing an additional 1,336,325 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of SAP by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 14,157,321 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $4,305,242,000 after buying an additional 1,163,616 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised 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 acquiring an additional 973,779 shares during the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its holdings in SAP by 1,126.3% in the third quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 842,416 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $225,102,000 after acquiring an additional 773,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp increased its position in SAP by 1,582.7% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 817,295 shares of the software maker's stock worth $198,529,000 after purchasing an additional 768,725 shares during the period.

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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