Main Street Research LLC Buys 5,662 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Main Street Research LLC boosted its position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 189,851 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,662 shares during the quarter. Main Street Research LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $20,016,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ORCL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 147,273,413 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $15,599,200,000 after buying an additional 7,883,515 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Oracle by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,586,810 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $5,815,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,570,528 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Oracle by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,502,544 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,675,878,000 after buying an additional 1,794,080 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Oracle by 3.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,718,180 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,982,630,000 after buying an additional 635,994 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the fourth quarter worth about $1,409,896,000. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ORCL has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $126.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Oracle from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. William Blair upgraded Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, December 22nd. Finally, Argus raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.76.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total transaction of $99,966,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Stock Performance

ORCL stock traded up $1.51 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $121.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,001,945 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,610,772. The stock has a market cap of $333.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.63, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $119.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $112.63. Oracle Co. has a 1 year low of $93.29 and a 1 year high of $132.77.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.29 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 20.27% and a return on equity of 336.11%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.96 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Oracle Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

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.