MWA Asset Management Buys Shares of 2,841 Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

MWA Asset Management purchased a new position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,841 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock, valued at approximately $473,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brookstone Capital Management grew its position in shares of Oracle by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 28,458 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $4,849,000 after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. bought a new stake in Oracle during the third quarter valued at about $222,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. increased its position in Oracle by 6.7% in the third quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 2,668 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. LifePro Asset Management raised its stake in shares of Oracle by 9.1% in the third quarter. LifePro Asset Management now owns 4,957 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $845,000 after buying an additional 412 shares during the period. Finally, Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Oracle by 14,290.9% during the 3rd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,166 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $539,000 after buying an additional 3,144 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ORCL shares. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. DA Davidson increased their price target on Oracle from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Oracle from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, CEO Safra Catz sold 345,174 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.56, for a total value of $64,050,487.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $207,565,931.52. This trade represents a 23.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 42.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of Oracle stock opened at $174.53 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $488.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $170.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $164.11. Oracle Co. has a one year low of $106.51 and a one year high of $198.31.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.48 by ($0.01). Oracle had a return on equity of 133.25% and a net margin of 21.16%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.34 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 23rd were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.