Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

by · The Cerbat Gem

Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX – Get Free Report) (TSE:OTC) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,240,000 shares, a decrease of 14.5% from the December 15th total of 4,960,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 648,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.5 days. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on OTEX shares. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Open Text from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. TD Securities dropped their price target on shares of Open Text from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 30th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Open Text from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Open Text from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Open Text from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 11th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.27.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Open Text

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Open Text

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Canoe Financial LP lifted its holdings in Open Text by 127.3% during the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 150,000 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,242,000 after purchasing an additional 84,000 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in Open Text during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,372,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Open Text by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,921 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $563,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Open Text by 19.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 205,891 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,086,000 after purchasing an additional 34,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in Open Text during the 3rd quarter valued at about $499,000. 70.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Open Text Price Performance

Shares of Open Text stock opened at $28.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Open Text has a fifty-two week low of $26.84 and a fifty-two week high of $45.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $29.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.86. The company has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a PE ratio of 16.26 and a beta of 1.12.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX – Get Free Report) (TSE:OTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The software maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. Open Text had a net margin of 8.35% and a return on equity of 24.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Analysts expect that Open Text will post 3.37 EPS for the current year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.262 per share. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.73%. This is an increase from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 60.69%.

About Open Text

(Get Free Report)

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.

Further Reading