Annual Report 2007
Software AG Stock
Share Price Development (indexed)
Due to the macroeconomic uncertainty, many investors also shifted their portfolios from smaller and medium-sized companies to large caps. In addition, more securities were sold in the capital markets where the investors could realize profits. All of these individual factors led to a decline in the share price in the second half of the year.
Another investment criterion is the liquidity of a share on the stock exchange. Software AG stock was able to assert its relatively strong position here: 45.7 million Software AG shares were traded in 2007 -nearly twice as many as in the year before (28.6 million shares). The average daily order book volume was more than €7 million. In the meantime, our share is one of the 100 most liquid market values and fulfills the highest liquidity criteria for electronic trading on the Xetra. This means that the costs for trading support provided by a bank (acting as a designated sponsor) have been eliminated.
In the past fiscal year, market capitalization rose slightly once again. After €1.68 billion in 2006, it is now approx. €1.73 billion. Because of the Company's increasing size, we are approaching new investor groups to expand our shareholder base.
Market capitalization at year-end
Dividend for 2007
In 2007, our investors were able to participate in our Company's success with an attractive dividend payment. At the Annual Shareholders' Meeting on May 11, 2007 we decided to increase the dividend from €0.80 per share to €0.90 per share. In other words, a total of approx. €25.3 million were distributed to shareholders as dividends. Also in the future we plan to adhere to an earnings- and liquidity-dependent dividend policy. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board of Software AG therefore propose a dividend of €1.00 for each share entitled to dividends. Based on the share price at the end of 2007 (€60.57), this represents a dividend yield of 1.65 percent.
Our continuous corporate growth, our dividend yield, and our sustainable cash flow make the Software AG share attractive both for growth-oriented and value-oriented investors.
Total Dividend Payout
