Bank of America Raises Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Price Target to $175.00

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) had its price objective upped by Bank of America from $155.00 to $175.00 in a report published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the enterprise software provider’s stock.

ORCL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. KeyCorp raised their price target on Oracle from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday. JMP Securities upgraded shares of Oracle from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $175.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Oracle from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Oracle from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a buy rating and set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $157.52.

Oracle Stock Up 11.4 %

ORCL stock opened at $155.82 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.25. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $138.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $129.13. Oracle has a 52 week low of $99.26 and a 52 week high of $160.52. The company has a market cap of $429.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.01.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.06. Oracle had a return on equity of 223.01% and a net margin of 19.76%. The business had revenue of $13.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.95 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Oracle will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th 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 1.03%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Oracle’s payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In other Oracle news, Director Leon E. Panetta sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.89, for a total transaction of $2,068,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 58,090 shares in the company, valued at $8,010,030.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Edward Screven sold 37,221 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.19, for a total transaction of $5,218,011.99. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 2,626,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $368,246,045.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Leon E. Panetta sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.89, for a total value of $2,068,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 58,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,010,030.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,862,500 shares of company stock worth $266,776,624. Company insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Oracle

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Oracle during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Oracle during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Oracle in the second quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Tidemark LLC purchased a new position in Oracle in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

About Oracle

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.