River Road Asset Management LLC Sells 41,248 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

River Road Asset Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 20.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 160,505 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 41,248 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $26,747,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $930,095,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 11.6% during the 3rd 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 period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,847,561 shares during the period. Amundi increased its position in Oracle by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 12,327,164 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,012,943,000 after purchasing an additional 1,623,609 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Oracle by 3,805.0% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 966,571 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $161,069,000 after purchasing an additional 941,819 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Oracle news, CEO Safra Catz sold 2,101,154 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,331,027.20. This trade represents a 65.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 42.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ORCL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group upped their price objective 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. Cantor Fitzgerald cut shares of Oracle to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Oracle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.73.

Oracle Stock Down 4.1 %

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $148.87 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $416.38 billion, a PE ratio of 36.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.07. Oracle Co. has a 12-month low of $111.18 and a 12-month high of $198.31. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $167.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $169.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $14.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.40 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 133.25% and a net margin of 21.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a positive change from Oracle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.