Royce & Associates LP Sells 73,216 Shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

Royce & Associates LP cut its holdings in shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) by 69.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 32,519 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 73,216 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Open Text were worth $920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 6,308,967 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $178,670,000 after acquiring an additional 389,220 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,642,455 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $187,952,000 after acquiring an additional 63,620 shares during the last quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 29.2% in the 4th quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 4,504,139 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $127,557,000 after acquiring an additional 1,017,065 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,068,116 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $135,399,000 after acquiring an additional 46,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,397,853 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $46,460,000 after acquiring an additional 61,696 shares during the last quarter. 70.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Open Text Stock Performance

Shares of Open Text stock opened at $26.38 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $27.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.70. Open Text Co. has a 1-year low of $24.86 and a 1-year high of $39.87. The company has a market cap of $6.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.72 and a beta of 1.17.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.10. Open Text had a return on equity of 23.23% and a net margin of 12.21%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Open Text Co. will post 3.45 EPS for the current year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.2625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.68%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Open Text from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group initiated coverage on Open Text in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 target price for the company. Citigroup raised their target price on Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Open Text from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Open Text from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Open Text currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.18.

About Open Text

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.