Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Sold by Vicus Capital

Vicus Capital cut its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 50.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,098 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 2,126 shares during the quarter. Vicus Capital’s holdings in Oracle were worth $357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in Oracle by 15.3% in the second quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 24,800 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,502,000 after acquiring an additional 3,300 shares in the last quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Oracle by 25.0% in the first quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,492 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $941,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Oracle by 63.8% in the third quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,370 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,256,000 after acquiring an additional 2,870 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Oracle by 55.7% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 22,315 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,151,000 after acquiring an additional 7,982 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wesbanco Bank Inc. raised its position in Oracle by 7.5% in the third quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 126,123 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $21,491,000 after acquiring an additional 8,790 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on ORCL shares. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Oracle from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com upgraded Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Oracle from $201.00 to $202.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Barclays raised their price target on Oracle from $160.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Oracle from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Oracle has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $168.67.

Oracle Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:ORCL opened at $175.33 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $485.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.19, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.01. Oracle Co. has a 12-month low of $99.26 and a 12-month high of $178.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $157.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $139.38.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $13.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.23 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 171.38% and a net margin of 20.40%. The company’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Oracle Co. will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.24%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,076,685. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 42.20% 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.