Guardian Partners Inc. Buys Shares of 185,772 Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

Guardian Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 185,772 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $5,180,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 103.8% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,011 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 515 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 40.8% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,373 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new position in shares of Open Text in the 4th quarter valued at $62,000. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Open Text by 20.7% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,564 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Open Text in the 4th quarter valued at $138,000. 70.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group began coverage on Open Text in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. TD Securities decreased their target price on Open Text from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Sunday, February 9th. Citigroup increased their target price on Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Open Text from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Open Text from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Open Text has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.18.

Open Text Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ OTEX opened at $26.38 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $27.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.69. 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 Co. has a 1-year low of $24.86 and a 1-year high of $39.87. The company has a market cap of $6.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.72 and a beta of 1.17.

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.10. Open Text had a return on equity of 23.23% and a net margin of 12.21%. Analysts forecast that Open Text Co. will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.2625 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.98%. This is an increase from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.68%.

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.