Royal Bank of Canada Begins Coverage on Oracle (NYSE:ORCL)

Royal Bank of Canada started coverage on shares of Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) in a report issued on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a sector perform rating and a $165.00 price objective on the enterprise software provider’s stock.

ORCL has been the subject of several other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Oracle from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $168.52.

Oracle Stock Performance

NYSE:ORCL opened at $173.52 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $160.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $140.20. The company has a market cap of $478.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 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. Oracle has a 52 week low of $99.26 and a 52 week high of $178.61.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted 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 the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Oracle will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $1,042,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,889 shares in the company, valued at $7,076,685. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 7,699,141 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,219,450 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,093,893 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 16,023.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,065,083 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $351,890,000 after acquiring an additional 2,052,275 shares during the period. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,526,500 shares during the period. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Oracle Company 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.