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

Key Points

• Short interest jumped 24% in March to 5,743,046 shares as of March 31, equal to 0.5% of shares outstanding and a days-to-cover ratio of about 2.0 based on average daily volume.
• SAP beat estimates for the quarter with $1.90 EPS vs. $1.77 expected and $11.36 billion in revenue (up 3.3% YoY), and analysts project about 6.55 EPS for the fiscal year.
• The company raised its annual dividend to $2.9291 per share (ex-dividend May 5, payable May 15), while the stock carries a MarketBeat consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with a $297 average price target.

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 5,743,046 shares, an increase of 24.0% from the March 15th total of 4,632,979 shares. Currently, 0.5% of the company's shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,862,725 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. CX Institutional lifted its stake in shares of SAP by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,961 shares of the software maker's stock worth $524,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of SAP by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 4,019 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,074,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Binnacle Investments Inc lifted its stake in shares of SAP by 14.2% in the 3rd quarter. Binnacle Investments Inc now owns 338 shares of the software maker's stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of SAP by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 740 shares of the software maker's stock worth $180,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of SAP by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,495 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,355,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SAP. HSBC upgraded shares of SAP to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of SAP from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Santander upgraded shares of SAP to a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Citigroup lowered shares of SAP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of SAP from $245.00 to $210.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $297.00.

SAP Stock Up 2.5%

SAP stock traded up $4.38 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $177.28. 5,148,521 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,104,274. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $187.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $226.99. The firm has a market cap of $217.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.24. SAP has a 1 year low of $160.66 and a 1 year high of $313.28. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The software maker reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $11.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.77 billion. SAP had a net margin of 19.92% and a return on equity of 16.54%. The company's revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.40 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that SAP will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 5th will be given a dividend of $2.9291 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 5th. This represents a dividend yield of 175.0%. This is a boost from SAP's previous annual dividend of $2.54. SAP's payout ratio is currently 26.10%.

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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