Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) Downgraded to Buy Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday.

Several other research firms have also commented on OTEX. 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 report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada cut Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays decreased their price target on Open Text from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Open Text in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Open Text from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.55.

Open Text Stock Performance

NASDAQ:OTEX opened at $28.01 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $7.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.19 and a beta of 1.11. Open Text has a 1 year low of $27.05 and a 1 year high of $45.47. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The software maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.13. Open Text had a net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 24.34%. The company had revenue of $1.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. Open Text’s quarterly revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Open Text will post 3.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $0.262 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This is a positive change from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.74%. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 60.69%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Open Text

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Open Text during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Open Text by 435.7% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 975 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 793 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in shares of Open Text in the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Open Text by 29.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,663 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the period. Finally, Essex LLC bought a new position in shares of Open Text during the third quarter valued at approximately $210,000. 70.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Open Text Company Profile

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.