Stephens Inc. AR Purchases 24,174 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Stephens Inc. AR grew its position in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 53.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 69,686 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after buying an additional 24,174 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Oracle were worth $11,875,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its holdings in Oracle by 15.3% during the second quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 24,800 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,502,000 after buying an additional 3,300 shares during the last quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,492 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $941,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 63.8% in the 3rd quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,370 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,256,000 after purchasing an additional 2,870 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Oracle by 55.7% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 22,315 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $3,151,000 after purchasing an additional 7,982 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wesbanco Bank Inc. grew its holdings in Oracle by 7.5% during the third quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 126,123 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $21,491,000 after purchasing an additional 8,790 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,042,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 42,889 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,076,685. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Oracle from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $160.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, October 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $168.52.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ORCL opened at $170.02 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $163.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $471.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.82, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.01. Oracle Co. has a one year low of $99.26 and a one year high of $178.61.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $13.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.23 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 171.38% and a net margin of 20.40%. The firm’s 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. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.24%.

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.