Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ:MGIC) Short Interest Update

Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ:MGIC) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 192,000 shares, an increase of 113.3% from the February 28th total of 90,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 69,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 1.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Magic Software Enterprises

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in Magic Software Enterprises by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 4,000 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Magic Software Enterprises by 4,274.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,818 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 5,685 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in Magic Software Enterprises during the 3rd quarter valued at $115,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in Magic Software Enterprises during the 4th quarter valued at $138,000. Finally, Man Group plc bought a new stake in Magic Software Enterprises in the 4th quarter worth $145,000. Institutional investors own 24.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on MGIC shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Magic Software Enterprises from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. William Blair downgraded shares of Magic Software Enterprises from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Magic Software Enterprises from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th.

Magic Software Enterprises Price Performance

MGIC traded down $0.22 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $12.95. The stock had a trading volume of 34,460 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,458. Magic Software Enterprises has a 1 year low of $9.51 and a 1 year high of $14.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 1.76. The business has a fifty day moving average of $12.94 and a 200 day moving average of $12.08. The company has a market cap of $635.83 million, a P/E ratio of 18.50 and a beta of 1.11.

Magic Software Enterprises (NASDAQ:MGIC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 11th. The software maker reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $142.58 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $137.00 million. Magic Software Enterprises had a net margin of 6.49% and a return on equity of 15.42%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Magic Software Enterprises will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Magic Software Enterprises Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 22nd will be issued a $0.327 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 22nd. This represents a dividend yield of 4.6%. This is an increase from Magic Software Enterprises’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.24. Magic Software Enterprises’s payout ratio is currently 86.67%.

Magic Software Enterprises Company Profile

Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. provides proprietary application development, vertical software solutions, business process integration, information technologies (IT) outsourcing software services, and cloud-based services in Israel and internationally. Its Software Services segment develops, markets, sells, and supports application platform, software applications, and business and process integration solutions and related services.