Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) Short Interest Up 37.9% in February

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 7,390,000 shares, an increase of 37.9% from the February 13th total of 5,360,000 shares. Approximately 2.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 972,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on OTEX shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Open Text from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities reduced their price target on shares of Open Text from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Sunday, February 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Open Text from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.18.

Open Text Trading Up 3.8 %

Shares of OTEX traded up $0.95 on Friday, reaching $26.06. 1,207,497 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,101,871. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $6.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.59 and a beta of 1.17. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $27.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.89. Open Text has a 12 month low of $24.86 and a 12 month high of $40.55.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.10. Open Text had a net margin of 12.21% and a return on equity of 23.23%. Research analysts anticipate that Open Text will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.2625 per share. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.03%. This is an increase from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Open Text’s payout ratio is 42.68%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Open Text

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Open Text by 1.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,642,455 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $187,952,000 after purchasing an additional 63,620 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Open Text in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,467,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in Open Text by 126.1% in the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 86,260 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,871,000 after purchasing an additional 48,111 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp bought a new stake in Open Text in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,232,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in Open Text in the third quarter valued at approximately $950,000. Institutional investors own 70.37% of the company’s stock.

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.