SAP SE $SAP Shares Purchased by Crawford Investment Counsel Inc.

Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 366,882 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,016 shares during the quarter. SAP accounts for 1.5% of Crawford Investment Counsel Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in SAP were worth $89,119,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SAP. Unio Capital LLC increased its position in SAP by 118.7% during the fourth quarter. Unio Capital LLC now owns 160,817 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,064,000 after buying an additional 87,272 shares in the last quarter. &PARTNERS increased its position in SAP by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 34,690 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,402,000 after buying an additional 3,574 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in SAP by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 716,684 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $174,089,000 after buying an additional 7,909 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. increased its position in SAP by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,238 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,673,000 after buying an additional 1,899 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TritonPoint Partners LLC purchased a new position in SAP during the fourth quarter worth $271,000.

SAP Price Performance

SAP stock opened at $165.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $173.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $201.26. SAP SE has a 12-month low of $158.58 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. The company has a market cap of $203.35 billion, a PE ratio of 22.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.12.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The software maker reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. SAP had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 20.08%.The firm had revenue of $11.06 billion during the quarter. As a group, research analysts predict that SAP SE will post 8.37 EPS for the current year.

SAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 5th were given a dividend of $2.9291 per share. This represents a yield of 170.0%. This is a boost from SAP’s previous annual dividend of $2.54. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 5th. SAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on SAP shares. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Zacks Research downgraded SAP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Barclays raised their price target on SAP from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on SAP from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded SAP from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.40.

About SAP

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.