SAP (NYSE:SAP) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded SAP from a "hold" to a "buy" on Saturday amid mixed analyst actions (e.g., Citi and Piper Sandler downgrades, HSBC upgrade), and MarketBeat reports an overall Moderate Buy consensus.
• SAP shares opened around $170.80, well below the analysts' average price target of $288 and a 1‑year high of $313.28, implying notable upside per consensus estimates.
• Several institutional investors — including Windacre Partnership, Bank of America, Sustainable Growth Advisers, M&T and Thrivent — have recently and materially increased their stakes in SAP, indicating heavy institutional buying interest.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on SAP. Citigroup downgraded shares of SAP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. HSBC raised shares of SAP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of SAP from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of SAP from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of SAP from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, SAP currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $288.00.

SAP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SAP opened at $170.80 on Friday. The company's fifty day moving average price is $180.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $219.88. SAP has a 1 year low of $160.66 and a 1 year high of $313.28. The company has a market capitalization of $209.82 billion, a PE ratio of 23.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.07.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The software maker reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. SAP had a net margin of 20.08% and a return on equity of 17.31%. The firm had revenue of $11.06 billion for the quarter. On average, research analysts predict that SAP will post 8.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SAP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Windacre Partnership LLC raised its position in shares of SAP by 130.9% in the third quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 2,357,225 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $629,874,000 after buying an additional 1,336,325 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of SAP by 58.1% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,650,418 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $805,992,000 after buying an additional 973,779 shares during the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 773,720 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in shares of SAP by 1,582.7% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 817,295 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $198,529,000 after buying an additional 768,725 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of SAP by 9,269.8% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 421,173 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $112,542,000 after buying an additional 416,678 shares during the last quarter.

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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