River Road Asset Management LLC Sells 4,796 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

River Road Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 309,383 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 4,796 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $32,618,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ORCL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 5.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 147,273,413 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $15,599,200,000 after purchasing an additional 7,883,515 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 2.6% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,586,810 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $5,815,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,570,528 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,502,544 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,675,878,000 after purchasing an additional 1,794,080 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 3.5% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,718,180 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,982,630,000 after purchasing an additional 635,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Oracle during the fourth quarter valued at $1,409,896,000. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Oracle in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Oracle from $126.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Oracle from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Argus raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.76.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total value of $99,966,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $141,546,631.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Trading Down 1.6 %

ORCL traded down $1.95 on Wednesday, reaching $118.67. 5,348,634 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,612,825. Oracle Co. has a one year low of $93.29 and a one year high of $132.77. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $119.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $112.73. The company has a market cap of $326.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.29 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 20.27% and a return on equity of 336.11%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.96 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Oracle’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.