Brandes Investment Partners LP Raises Position in Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

Brandes Investment Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) by 29.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,504,139 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,017,065 shares during the quarter. Open Text makes up about 1.4% of Brandes Investment Partners LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Brandes Investment Partners LP owned 1.71% of Open Text worth $127,557,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in OTEX. IFP Advisors Inc increased its holdings in shares of Open Text by 103.8% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,011 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 515 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Open Text by 40.8% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,373 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of Open Text by 20.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,564 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Open Text during the 4th quarter worth $138,000. Finally, Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. acquired a new stake in shares of Open Text during the 4th quarter worth $241,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.37% of the company’s stock.

Open Text Stock Performance

Shares of OTEX stock opened at $26.06 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. Open Text Co. has a one year low of $24.86 and a one year high of $40.55. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.59 and a beta of 1.17.

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

Open Text Increases Dividend

The firm 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 represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.03%. This is a boost from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.68%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Open Text 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.