Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) Short Interest Update

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,240,000 shares, a decline of 14.5% from the December 15th total of 4,960,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 648,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.5 days. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Open Text Stock Down 1.2 %

Open Text stock traded down $0.35 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $27.78. The stock had a trading volume of 367,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 602,610. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $29.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.84. Open Text has a 12-month low of $26.84 and a 12-month high of $45.47. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $7.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.06 and a beta of 1.12.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The software maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $1.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. Open Text had a return on equity of 24.34% and a net margin of 8.35%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Open Text will post 3.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.262 dividend. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.77%. This is an increase 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%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Open Text

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of OTEX. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Open Text by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 44,662 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,265,000 after acquiring an additional 4,600 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP grew its stake in shares of Open Text by 127.3% during the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 150,000 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,242,000 after purchasing an additional 84,000 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new stake in shares of Open Text during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,372,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,921 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $563,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Open Text by 19.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 205,891 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,086,000 after buying an additional 34,135 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on OTEX shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Open Text from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Securities decreased their price target on shares of Open Text from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 30th. Barclays cut their price objective on Open Text from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.27.

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.