Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 20.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,750 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,289 shares during the quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $1,291,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Oracle by 5.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,416,362 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $411,748,000 after purchasing an additional 121,874 shares during the period. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Oracle by 201.7% during the 4th quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,599 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders raised its holdings in Oracle by 383.4% in the 4th quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 7,155 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,192,000 after buying an additional 5,675 shares during the period. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Oracle by 24.8% in the fourth quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 164,593 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $27,428,000 after buying an additional 32,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Oracle during the fourth quarter worth about $1,800,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ORCL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price target on shares of Oracle from $214.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Oracle from $205.00 to $175.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Bank of America lowered their price target on Oracle from $195.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Safra Catz sold 2,101,154 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.35, for a total transaction of $389,448,893.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $207,331,027.20. This trade represents a 65.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 42.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Oracle Stock Up 0.2 %

Oracle stock opened at $152.78 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $164.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $169.77. The stock has a market cap of $427.31 billion, a PE ratio of 37.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.07. Oracle Co. has a 1-year low of $112.78 and a 1-year high of $198.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $14.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.40 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 133.25% and a net margin of 21.16%. Oracle’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.41 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5 EPS 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 given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. This is an increase from Oracle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.95%.

Oracle Company 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.