Magnetar Financial LLC Acquires Shares of 2,367 Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 2,367 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock, valued at approximately $394,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,416,362 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $411,748,000 after purchasing an additional 121,874 shares during the last quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 201.7% in 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 boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 383.4% in the 4th quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 7,155 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,675 shares during the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 24.8% in the 4th quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 164,593 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $27,428,000 after purchasing an additional 32,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crews Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Oracle in the 4th quarter worth $1,800,000. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ORCL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. BNP Paribas raised Oracle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised Oracle from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.20.

Oracle Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of ORCL opened at $152.83 on Friday. Oracle Co. has a one year low of $112.78 and a one year high of $198.31. The company has a market cap of $427.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.07. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $164.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $170.06.

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

Oracle Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This is an increase from Oracle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is 46.95%.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 2,101,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.35, for a total transaction of $389,448,893.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,331,027.20. This represents a 65.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company 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.