SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) Short Interest Update

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,010,000 shares, an increase of 25.6% from the October 15th total of 1,600,000 shares. Approximately 0.2% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 826,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

SAP Price Performance

NYSE:SAP opened at $228.31 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $280.48 billion, a PE ratio of 91.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 1.25. SAP has a 1-year low of $148.10 and a 1-year high of $243.01. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $228.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $210.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The software maker reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.31 by ($0.08). SAP had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 8.15%. The firm had revenue of $8.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that SAP will post 4.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of SAP

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SAP. FMR LLC raised its stake in SAP by 22.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,246,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,347,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,866,468 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new position in shares of SAP in the first quarter valued at about $58,936,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SAP during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,573,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of SAP by 644.9% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 164,330 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $37,648,000 after buying an additional 142,270 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in SAP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $21,479,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on SAP shares. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of SAP from $252.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on SAP from $234.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on SAP from $248.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of SAP from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Argus raised shares of SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, SAP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $252.33.

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.