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

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,690,000 shares, an increase of 19.4% from the March 15th total of 3,090,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,320,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 0.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SAP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JMP Securities upped their target price on SAP from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of SAP in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of SAP from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Kepler Capital Markets raised SAP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $38.00 price objective on shares of SAP in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SAP currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $251.00.

SAP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SAP traded up $1.87 during trading on Thursday, reaching $273.35. 1,390,878 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 995,137. The firm has a market cap of $335.81 billion, a PE ratio of 95.24, a P/E/G ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.28. SAP has a fifty-two week low of $179.15 and a fifty-two week high of $293.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $268.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $255.86.

SAP (NYSE:SAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The software maker reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $10.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.08 billion. SAP had a return on equity of 12.18% and a net margin of 9.17%. As a group, analysts predict that SAP will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a $2.5423 dividend. This represents a yield of 0.8%. This is a positive change from SAP's previous annual dividend of $2.39. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. SAP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.11%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SAP

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SAP. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in SAP by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,118,138 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,260,137,000 after purchasing an additional 403,956 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 890,157 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of SAP by 91.2% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,471,798 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $362,371,000 after acquiring an additional 701,880 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of SAP by 145.5% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,346,506 shares of the software maker's stock worth $331,523,000 after purchasing an additional 798,037 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in SAP by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,314,814 shares of the software maker's stock worth $323,720,000 after purchasing an additional 70,613 shares in the last quarter.

About SAP

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.