Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Trading 0.5% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)’s share price traded up 0.5% on Wednesday after BNP Paribas upgraded the stock to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $179.60 and last traded at $178.70. 3,626,669 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 57% from the average session volume of 8,360,706 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.74.

ORCL has been the subject of several other research reports. DA Davidson upped their target price on Oracle from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Melius Research raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Oracle presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $183.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,042,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,889 shares in the company, valued at $7,076,685. The trade was a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 42.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Oracle

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. State Street Corp increased its position in Oracle by 2.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 70,441,556 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $12,003,241,000 after buying an additional 1,847,561 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 2.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,194,683 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $5,977,015,000 after acquiring an additional 885,041 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Oracle by 11.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,480,384 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,370,640,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917,416 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 17,898,029 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,049,824,000 after acquiring an additional 310,709 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Oracle by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 14,608,951 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,489,345,000 after purchasing an additional 54,868 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $485.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $180.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $155.22.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.48 by ($0.01). Oracle had a return on equity of 171.38% and a net margin of 20.40%. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.34 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Oracle Co. will post 5.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 9th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.24%.

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.