Oracle’s (ORCL) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Guggenheim

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Guggenheim in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $220.00 target price on the enterprise software provider’s stock. Guggenheim’s price target suggests a potential upside of 38.68% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on ORCL. 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 research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Oracle from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Oracle from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Oracle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.73.

Oracle Stock Performance

Shares of Oracle stock traded up $1.17 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $158.64. The company had a trading volume of 659,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,425,556. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Oracle has a one year low of $110.67 and a one year high of $198.31. The firm has a market cap of $443.70 billion, a PE ratio of 38.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $168.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $169.15.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by ($0.01). Oracle had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. The company 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 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Oracle will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 2,101,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.35, for a total transaction of $389,448,893.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,331,027.20. This represents a 65.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ORCL. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Oracle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Oracle in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Oracle by 89.7% in the fourth quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 184 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in Oracle during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Oracle in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

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.