SAP (NYSE:SAP) Shares Gap Down - Time to Sell?

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report)'s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $309.80, but opened at $302.07. SAP shares last traded at $303.86, with a volume of 232,296 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $308.00 target price (up previously from $286.00) on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Argus reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of SAP in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of SAP in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on SAP from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of SAP in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $271.83.

SAP Trading Down 1.4%

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $281.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $270.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $375.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.43, a PEG ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.12.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $10.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.08 billion. SAP had a return on equity of 12.18% and a net margin of 9.17%. As a group, research analysts forecast that SAP SE will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a $2.5423 dividend. This is an increase from SAP's previous annual dividend of $2.39. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. SAP's payout ratio is presently 35.25%.

Institutional Trading of SAP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SAP. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SAP by 31,239.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,306,229 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $350,644,000 after purchasing an additional 1,302,061 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SAP in the 4th quarter valued at about $290,023,000. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SAP by 125.0% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,602,548 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $394,563,000 after purchasing an additional 890,157 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of SAP by 145.5% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,346,506 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $331,523,000 after purchasing an additional 798,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of SAP by 91.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,471,798 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $362,371,000 after purchasing an additional 701,880 shares during the last quarter.

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.

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