Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX - Get Free Report) TSE: OTC have been given a consensus rating of "Hold" by the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $35.90.

A number of research firms recently commented on OTEX. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Open Text from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $45.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Open Text from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Open Text from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays dropped their price target on Open Text from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup dropped 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.

Open Text Stock Performance

Shares of OTEX traded down $0.98 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $30.67. 614,003 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 722,718. Open Text has a twelve month low of $27.50 and a twelve month high of $45.47. 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 $8.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.73 and a beta of 1.11. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $31.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.02.

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

Open Text Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.262 per share. This is a boost from Open Text's previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. Open Text's payout ratio is 60.69%.

Institutional Trading of Open Text

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Open Text by 5.1% during the second quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd now owns 15,702,510 shares of the software maker's stock worth $471,415,000 after purchasing an additional 767,822 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Open Text by 1.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,642,455 shares of the software maker's stock worth $187,952,000 after purchasing an additional 63,620 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP grew 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 worth $166,325,000 after purchasing an additional 867,978 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 1.1% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,068,116 shares of the software maker's stock worth $135,399,000 after acquiring an additional 46,223 shares during the period. Finally, Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 16.8% in the second quarter. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. now owns 3,929,040 shares of the software maker's stock worth $117,956,000 after acquiring an additional 566,150 shares during the period. 70.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Open Text

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.