SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,920,000 shares, a growth of 31.5% from the May 15th total of 1,460,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,450,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.3 days. Currently, 0.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SAP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SAP. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position 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 period. TD Asset Management Inc. grew its position 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 period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position 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 period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position 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 period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in SAP during the 4th quarter worth approximately $163,630,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on SAP. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of SAP from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $330.00 target price on shares of SAP in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Argus restated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of SAP in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler started coverage on SAP in a report on Tuesday. They issued an "overweight" rating for the company. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $308.00 price target (up from $286.00) on shares of SAP in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $271.83.

SAP Trading Down 1.1%

NYSE:SAP traded down $3.35 on Tuesday, hitting $292.49. 727,731 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,062,494. The stock has a market capitalization of $359.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 1.32. SAP has a 52 week low of $188.45 and a 52 week high of $311.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. The company's 50-day moving average price is $287.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $273.21.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The software maker reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $10.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.08 billion. SAP had a return on equity of 13.66% and a net margin of 16.33%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that SAP will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $2.5423 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. This is a positive change from SAP's previous annual dividend of $2.39. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. SAP's payout ratio is currently 35.25%.

SAP Company Profile

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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