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

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,360,000 shares, a growth of 19.9% from the January 31st total of 4,470,000 shares. Approximately 2.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 703,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.6 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Open Text from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group began coverage on Open Text in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 target price for the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, TD Securities decreased 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 note on Sunday, February 9th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.18.

Open Text Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of OTEX stock traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $25.86. The company had a trading volume of 487,704 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,061,283. The company has a 50 day moving average of $28.05 and a 200 day moving average of $30.21. The firm has a market cap of $6.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.52 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. Open Text has a 1-year low of $25.07 and a 1-year high of $40.55.

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

Open Text Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.2625 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.05 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.06%. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.68%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Open Text

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its holdings in Open Text by 208.2% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 140,726 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,985,000 after acquiring an additional 95,058 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Open Text during the fourth quarter worth about $372,000. Twinbeech Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Open Text during the 4th quarter valued at about $360,000. Two Sigma Investments LP grew its position in shares of Open Text by 483.2% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 72,906 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,065,000 after purchasing an additional 60,406 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Open Text by 38.8% in the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 18,238 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 5,100 shares during the period. 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.