Herold Advisors Inc. Reduces Stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Herold Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 7.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,800 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 496 shares during the period. Herold Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Oracle were worth $612,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ORCL. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE increased its position in shares of Oracle by 298.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 243 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its position in shares of Oracle by 1,268.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 342 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. increased its position in shares of Oracle by 139.4% during the 4th quarter. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. now owns 371 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ORCL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Argus upgraded Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. HSBC increased their price objective on Oracle from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. William Blair upgraded Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Oracle from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.76.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total value of $99,966,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 42.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Oracle Trading Up 2.0 %

NYSE ORCL traded up $2.32 on Friday, hitting $117.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,253,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,478,005. The firm has a market cap of $322.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.11. Oracle Co. has a 52-week low of $93.29 and a 52-week high of $132.77.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.41 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $13.29 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 336.11% and a net margin of 20.27%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.96 EPS. Research analysts predict that Oracle Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. Oracle’s payout ratio is presently 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.