Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 10,884 Shares of SAP SE $SAP

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 371,491 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 10,884 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in SAP were worth $90,239,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dara Capital US Inc. bought a new stake in SAP in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,342,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in SAP by 15.2% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 53,410 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $14,272,000 after purchasing an additional 7,066 shares in the last quarter. Seaview Investment Managers LLC increased its holdings in SAP by 191.4% in the third quarter. Seaview Investment Managers LLC now owns 11,744 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,138,000 after purchasing an additional 7,714 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in SAP in the third quarter worth approximately $32,760,000. Finally, Cidel Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in SAP by 9.7% in the third quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 139,273 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $37,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,268 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SAP. Zacks Research downgraded SAP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a report on Thursday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of SAP in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on SAP from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $288.00.

SAP Stock Performance

Shares of SAP stock opened at $173.21 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $179.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $217.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.11. SAP SE has a 12 month low of $160.66 and a 12 month high of $313.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The software maker reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $11.06 billion for the quarter. SAP had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 20.08%. As a group, analysts anticipate that SAP SE will post 8.35 EPS for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 5th will be issued a dividend of $2.9291 per share. This represents a yield of 170.0%. This is an increase from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.54. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 5th. SAP’s dividend payout ratio is 28.78%.

SAP Profile

SAP SE is a global enterprise software company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers, the company’s name is an acronym for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing). SAP develops and sells software and services that help organizations manage business processes across finance, human resources, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and customer relationships.

SAP’s product portfolio spans on‑premises and cloud offerings, anchored by its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as SAP S/4HANA and the SAP HANA in‑memory database and platform.