Cooke & Bieler LP Purchases 389,220 Shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX)

Cooke & Bieler LP raised its holdings in shares of Open Text Co. (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSE:OTC) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,308,967 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 389,220 shares during the period. Open Text comprises approximately 1.7% of Cooke & Bieler LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Cooke & Bieler LP owned about 2.39% of Open Text worth $178,670,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Open Text by 103.8% during the fourth 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. raised its holdings in Open Text by 40.8% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,373 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in Open Text by 20.7% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,564 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Open Text during the 4th quarter valued at $138,000. Finally, Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. bought a new stake in shares of Open Text during the 4th quarter valued at $241,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.37% of the company’s stock.

Open Text Price Performance

OTEX opened at $26.00 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. Open Text Co. has a 52-week low of $25.07 and a 52-week high of $40.55. The company has a 50 day moving average of $27.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.07. The company has a market cap of $6.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.57 and a beta of 1.17.

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

Open Text Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $0.2625 dividend. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Open Text’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Open Text’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on OTEX shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on Open Text from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Open Text from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Open Text in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. TD Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Open Text from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Sunday, February 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased 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 report on Friday, February 7th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Open Text currently has an average 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.