Bridgewater Associates LP Buys New Stake in Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new stake in shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX - Free Report) TSE: OTC during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 37,726 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,257,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of OTEX. Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its position in Open Text by 236.8% in the 2nd quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 1,834,835 shares of the software maker's stock worth $55,059,000 after buying an additional 1,290,011 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Open Text by 25.1% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,578,835 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $167,277,000 after purchasing an additional 1,118,479 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP raised its holdings in shares of Open Text by 18.6% during the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,536,769 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $166,325,000 after purchasing an additional 867,978 shares during the last quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd lifted its position in Open Text by 5.1% during the second quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd now owns 15,702,510 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $471,415,000 after purchasing an additional 767,822 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Open Text by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,021,893 shares of the software maker's stock worth $120,390,000 after purchasing an additional 599,790 shares during the period. 70.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Open Text Price Performance

NASDAQ:OTEX traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $30.28. 537,110 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 648,800. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $31.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54. The company has a market cap of $8.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.48 and a beta of 1.13. Open Text Co. has a 1 year low of $27.50 and a 1 year high of $45.47.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX - Get Free Report) TSE: OTC last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The software maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.28 billion. Open Text had a net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 24.34%. Open Text's revenue for the quarter was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Open Text Co. will post 3.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.262 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.46%. This is a boost from Open Text's previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. Open Text's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 60.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on OTEX shares. Barclays lowered their price target on Open Text from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Open Text from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $45.00 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup cut their price target on Open Text from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Open Text from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $35.90.

Open Text Profile

Open Text Corporation provides information management software and solutions. The company offers content services, which includes content collaboration and intelligent capture to records management, collaboration, e-signatures, and archiving; and operates experience cloud platform that provides customer experience and web content management, digital asset management, customer analytics, AI and insights, e-discovery, digital fax, omnichannel communications, secure messaging, and voice of customer, as well as customer journey, testing, and segmentation.