Wall Street Zen Upgrades SAP (NYSE:SAP) to "Buy"

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen has upgraded SAP's rating from "hold" to "buy," indicating a more favorable outlook for the company's stock.
• Despite a recent downgrade by Erste Group Bank, the overall consensus rating for SAP remains "buy" with a price target of $281.67.
• SAP reported robust earnings, with $10.58 billion in revenue for the last quarter, significantly exceeding analysts' expectations of $9.10 billion.

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

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on SAP. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. UBS Group raised shares of SAP to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of SAP from $330.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of SAP in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued an "overweight" rating on the stock. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded SAP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $281.67.

SAP Price Performance

NYSE:SAP opened at $257.10 on Friday. SAP has a 1-year low of $217.51 and a 1-year high of $313.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $284.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $283.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $315.85 billion, a PE ratio of 42.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 1.29.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The software maker reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $0.07. SAP had a net margin of 18.26% and a return on equity of 14.84%. The business had revenue of $10.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that SAP will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in SAP by 585.7% during the first quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 96 shares of the software maker's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in SAP during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV raised its stake in SAP by 153.5% during the first quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 109 shares of the software maker's stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in SAP during the second quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Motco raised its stake in SAP by 400.0% during the second quarter. Motco now owns 125 shares of the software maker's stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter.

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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