Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Trading Up 1.7% After Analyst Upgrade

Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)’s stock price traded up 1.7% during trading on Tuesday after Argus raised their price target on the stock from $145.00 to $159.00. Argus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Oracle traded as high as $144.10 and last traded at $143.65. 2,728,415 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 8,472,857 shares. The stock had previously closed at $141.31.

Several other research firms also recently commented on ORCL. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Oracle from $133.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Oracle from $159.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Oracle from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $144.79.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In related news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total value of $99,966,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director George H. Conrades sold 25,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.13, for a total value of $2,903,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,071,294.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total transaction of $99,966,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $141,546,631.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 880,000 shares of company stock valued at $110,488,150. 42.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Oracle

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Oracle by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 151,213,890 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $18,993,977,000 after acquiring an additional 1,514,569 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Oracle by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,718,180 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,982,630,000 after acquiring an additional 635,994 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Oracle by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,466,713 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,319,604,000 after acquiring an additional 82,551 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Oracle by 17.7% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 14,599,902 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,539,268,000 after acquiring an additional 2,191,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Oracle by 148.8% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 12,872,300 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,616,855,000 after acquiring an additional 7,699,141 shares during the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Oracle Stock Up 2.4 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $397.54 billion, a PE ratio of 38.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $121.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $116.50.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $14.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.57 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 223.01% and a net margin of 19.76%. Oracle’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Oracle Co. will post 5.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.13%.

Oracle Company Profile

Oracle Corporation offers products and services that address enterprise information technology environments worldwide. Its Oracle cloud software as a service offering include various cloud software applications, including Oracle Fusion cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion cloud enterprise performance management, Oracle Fusion cloud supply chain and manufacturing management, Oracle Fusion cloud human capital management, Oracle Cerner healthcare, Oracle Advertising, and NetSuite applications suite, as well as Oracle Fusion Sales, Service, and Marketing.