Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,740,000 shares, a growth of 24.4% from the July 31st total of 3,810,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 674,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.0 days. Currently, 1.8% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Open Text

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in OTEX. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new position in Open Text in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Open Text during the second quarter worth $30,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Open Text during the first quarter worth $32,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in Open Text in the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. acquired a new position in Open Text in the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.37% of the company’s stock.

Open Text Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:OTEX opened at $31.82 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $30.94 and a 200-day moving average of $33.31. Open Text has a one year low of $27.50 and a one year high of $45.47. The stock has a market cap of $8.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.32 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The software maker reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.05. Open Text had a return on equity of 25.00% and a net margin of 8.06%. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.79 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Open Text will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Open Text Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be paid a $0.192 dividend. This represents a $0.77 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. Open Text’s payout ratio is presently 161.29%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on OTEX. StockNews.com raised Open Text from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 11th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Open Text from $38.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. National Bankshares downgraded Open Text from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Open Text from $38.00 to $33.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Open Text from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.60.

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.