Maple Capital Management Inc. Grows Position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Maple Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 3.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,493 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Oracle were worth $766,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in Oracle by 148.8% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 12,872,300 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,616,855,000 after buying an additional 7,699,141 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Oracle by 131.2% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,911,201 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $552,262,000 after buying an additional 2,219,450 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Oracle by 97.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,242,647 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $532,920,000 after buying an additional 2,093,893 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its position 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 worth $219,224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,526,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Oracle by 1.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 151,213,890 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $18,993,977,000 after purchasing an additional 1,514,569 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ORCL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Oracle from $201.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. JMP Securities boosted their target price on shares of Oracle from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Melius raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. UBS Group reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.67.

Oracle Stock Up 0.7 %

Oracle stock opened at $175.00 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $157.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $139.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $482.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.84, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. Oracle Co. has a one year low of $99.26 and a one year high of $178.61.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $13.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.23 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 20.40% and a return on equity of 171.38%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.91%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In related news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,042,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 42,889 shares in the company, valued at $7,076,685. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

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.