Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) Shares Gap Up Following Strong Earnings

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) gapped up before the market opened on Friday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $29.53, but opened at $30.83. Open Text shares last traded at $28.58, with a volume of 505,948 shares changing hands.

The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.10. Open Text had a net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 24.34%.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.2625 per share. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. This is an increase from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio is 60.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OTEX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Open Text from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Open Text from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Open Text from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, TD Securities decreased their price target on Open Text from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Open Text currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.45.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Open Text by 435.7% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 975 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 793 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its position in shares of Open Text by 103.8% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,011 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 515 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Open Text by 29.6% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,663 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of Open Text by 20.7% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,564 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Open Text during the fourth quarter worth about $138,000. 70.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Open Text Trading Down 5.7 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $7.35 billion, a PE ratio of 16.10 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $28.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.64.

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.