Lafayette Investments Inc. Acquires New Stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Lafayette Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 1,350 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ORCL. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Oracle during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle in the second quarter worth $35,000. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new position in shares of Oracle in the first quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Oracle during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on ORCL. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Oracle from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Melius Research raised Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Oracle from $160.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Oracle from $160.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.52.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In related news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,076,685. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 42.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Oracle Stock Performance

ORCL traded up $1.14 on Thursday, hitting $174.24. 404,840 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,368,700. The stock has a market capitalization of $482.83 billion, a PE ratio of 44.61, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68. The company has a 50 day moving average of $158.68 and a 200-day moving average of $139.61. Oracle Co. has a 12-month low of $99.26 and a 12-month high of $178.61.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $13.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.23 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 171.38% and a net margin of 20.40%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid 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 is Thursday, October 10th. Oracle’s payout ratio is 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.