Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) Position Cut by Grassi Investment Management

Grassi Investment Management reduced its stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 98,395 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 950 shares during the quarter. Oracle makes up 1.4% of Grassi Investment Management’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Grassi Investment Management’s holdings in Oracle were worth $16,397,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ORCL. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 16,023.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,065,083 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $351,890,000 after buying an additional 2,052,275 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 11.6% in 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 last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Oracle by 2.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 70,441,556 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $12,003,241,000 after purchasing an additional 1,847,561 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 5,853.1% during the second quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 1,552,580 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $219,224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,526,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,194,683 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $5,977,015,000 after purchasing an additional 885,041 shares during the period. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ORCL. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Oracle from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Oracle from $201.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Melius Research raised Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $181.48.

Oracle Stock Performance

Shares of Oracle stock traded down $0.93 on Monday, reaching $153.57. The stock had a trading volume of 4,971,780 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,395,279. Oracle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $105.42 and a fifty-two week high of $198.31. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $177.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $161.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $429.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.06.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.12 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.34 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Oracle Co. will post 5.03 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.12%.

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.