Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) Hits New 52-Week Low – What’s Next?

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) shares hit a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $26.96 and last traded at $27.12, with a volume of 84125 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.87.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup lowered their target price on Open Text from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group initiated coverage on Open Text in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded Open Text from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.55.

Open Text Stock Down 2.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $29.20 and a 200 day moving average of $30.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.79 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.13. Open Text had a return on equity of 24.34% and a net margin of 8.35%. The company had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Open Text Co. will post 3.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a $0.262 dividend. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This is a boost from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio is 60.69%.

Institutional Trading of Open Text

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Open Text during the 3rd quarter valued at $8,011,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Open Text by 1.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,642,455 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $187,952,000 after purchasing an additional 63,620 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Open Text in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,467,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in Open Text by 126.1% in the 3rd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 86,260 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,871,000 after buying an additional 48,111 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp bought a new stake in Open Text during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,232,000. 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.