M&G Plc Makes New Investment in Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

M&G Plc purchased a new position in Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 13,465 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $404,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in OTEX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Open Text by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,344,910 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $401,693,000 after purchasing an additional 135,812 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its position in Open Text by 25.7% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 9,058,024 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $380,696,000 after acquiring an additional 1,853,891 shares in the last quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in Open Text by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 8,661,252 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $365,800,000 after acquiring an additional 782,885 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Open Text by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,965,317 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $292,817,000 after purchasing an additional 74,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP grew its stake in shares of Open Text by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 4,767,848 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $200,345,000 after purchasing an additional 191,292 shares during the last quarter. 70.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Open Text Trading Up 3.3 %

NASDAQ:OTEX opened at $30.74 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $30.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $8.23 billion, a PE ratio of 49.58 and a beta of 1.12. Open Text Co. has a fifty-two week low of $27.50 and a fifty-two week high of $45.47.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The software maker reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Open Text had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 25.00%. The firm’s revenue was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Open Text Co. will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be paid a $0.192 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.77 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 161.29%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. National Bank Financial cut shares of Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Open Text in a report on Friday, May 3rd. National Bankshares downgraded Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $38.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays dropped their price target on Open Text from $38.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, TD Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Open Text from $54.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Open Text presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.60.

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.