Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) Position Lifted by Forte Capital LLC ADV

Forte Capital LLC ADV raised its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,422 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the quarter. Forte Capital LLC ADV’s holdings in Oracle were worth $1,237,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. ING Groep NV raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 117.5% during the fourth quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 458,813 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $76,457,000 after purchasing an additional 247,816 shares during the period. Dash Acquisitions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 184.7% during the fourth quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 53,372 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $8,753,000 after purchasing an additional 34,624 shares during the period. Zullo Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Zullo Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,198 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Boston Financial Mangement LLC raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 15,010 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,501,000 after purchasing an additional 697 shares during the period. Finally, Maytree Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Oracle during the fourth quarter worth $850,000. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Oracle Stock Performance

Oracle stock opened at $176.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $492.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $169.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $166.74. Oracle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $106.51 and a fifty-two week high of $198.31.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. Oracle’s revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.34 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Oracle Co. will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 2,101,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.35, for a total value of $389,448,893.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,331,027.20. The trade was a 65.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 42.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ORCL shares. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.73.

Oracle 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.