Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Time to Buy?

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) shares saw strong trading volume on Wednesday . 1,685,400 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 160% from the previous session’s volume of 648,444 shares.The stock last traded at $30.34 and had previously closed at $30.02.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on OTEX. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Open Text from $42.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Open Text from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. TD Securities decreased their price target on Open Text from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.90.

Open Text Stock Up 1.9 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $8.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.68 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $31.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last announced its 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 net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 24.34%. The business had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Open Text Co. will post 3.37 EPS for the current year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.262 dividend. This is an increase from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 60.69%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Open Text

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in Open Text in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Open Text by 435.7% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 975 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 793 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in Open Text during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Open Text by 29.6% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,663 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Essex LLC purchased a new stake in Open Text in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $210,000. 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.