Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Time to Sell?

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $27.20 and last traded at $27.42, with a volume of 725339 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.63.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on OTEX shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Open Text from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Open Text from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Open Text from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $45.00 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of 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. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.55.

Open Text Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.28 billion, a PE ratio of 15.82 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.02.

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 return on equity of 24.34% and a net margin of 8.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Open Text’s quarterly revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Open Text Co. will post 3.37 EPS for the current year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.262 dividend. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.83%. This is a positive change from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio is 60.69%.

Institutional Trading of Open Text

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of OTEX. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Open Text by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 18,550 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $557,000 after buying an additional 1,926 shares during the last quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Open Text by 44.5% in the second quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 482,959 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $14,508,000 after purchasing an additional 148,738 shares during the period. IMA Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in Open Text during the second quarter worth approximately $770,000. Callan Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Open Text during the second quarter worth approximately $257,000. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Open Text in the 2nd quarter valued at $269,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.