Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Sold by First Merchants Corp

First Merchants Corp trimmed its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 14.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,549 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 2,115 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Oracle were worth $2,091,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Oracle by 16,023.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,065,083 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $351,890,000 after purchasing an additional 2,052,275 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Oracle by 11.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,480,384 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $3,370,640,000 after buying an additional 1,917,416 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Oracle by 2.7% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 279.7% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,210,745 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $201,759,000 after buying an additional 891,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Oracle by 2.6% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ORCL has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded Oracle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Oracle from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Oracle from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.73.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 345,174 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.56, for a total transaction of $64,050,487.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $207,565,931.52. This trade represents a 23.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 42.20% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Stock Up 1.1 %

ORCL opened at $174.08 on Friday. Oracle Co. has a 1 year low of $106.51 and a 1 year high of $198.31. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $169.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $165.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $486.89 billion, a PE ratio of 42.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.05.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released 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). The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.12 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 133.25% and a net margin of 21.16%. Oracle’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.34 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.12%.

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.