Empirical Finance LLC Decreases Holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Empirical Finance LLC lessened its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 44,872 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 221 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $7,477,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ORCL. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 16,023.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,052,275 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 11.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,480,384 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $3,370,640,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917,416 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 2.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 70,441,556 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $12,003,241,000 after acquiring an additional 1,847,561 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 279.7% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,210,745 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $201,759,000 after acquiring an additional 891,842 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 2.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,194,683 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $5,977,015,000 after acquiring an additional 885,041 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 2,101,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,331,027.20. The trade was a 65.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 42.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ORCL shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Oracle from $173.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Oracle in a research report on Friday, January 17th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $214.00 price objective for the company. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.73.

Oracle Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $174.53 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65. Oracle Co. has a 52 week low of $106.51 and a 52 week high of $198.31. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $170.42 and its 200 day moving average is $164.35. The company has a market cap of $488.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.67, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.05.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.12 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.34 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Oracle’s payout ratio is currently 39.12%.

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.