Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) Hits New 52-Week Low – Time to Sell?

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) shares hit a new 52-week low on Friday . The company traded as low as $26.96 and last traded at $27.12, with a volume of 84125 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $27.87.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on OTEX shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group assumed coverage on Open Text in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com cut Open Text from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Barclays cut their price target on Open Text from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Nine 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.55.

Open Text Stock Down 1.3 %

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.27 billion, a PE ratio of 15.90 and a beta of 1.12.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The software maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.13. Open Text had a return on equity of 24.34% and a net margin of 8.35%. The company had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Open Text Co. will post 3.37 EPS for the current year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a $0.262 dividend. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.81%. This is a boost from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 60.69%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Open Text

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Open Text by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 205,891 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,086,000 after acquiring an additional 34,135 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Open Text during the third quarter valued at $499,000. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in Open Text by 169.6% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 576,105 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $19,173,000 after purchasing an additional 362,422 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Open Text by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,397,853 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $46,460,000 after purchasing an additional 61,696 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Open Text during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,521,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.37% of the company’s stock.

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.