Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Coverage Initiated at Stephens

Research analysts at Stephens initiated coverage on shares of Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) in a research report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “equal weight” rating and a $167.00 price target on the enterprise software provider’s stock. Stephens’ target price suggests a potential upside of 9.31% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on ORCL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Oracle from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Oracle from $205.00 to $175.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Oracle from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada set a $145.00 target price on Oracle and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on Oracle from $214.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.20.

Oracle Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ORCL opened at $152.78 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $427.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.07. Oracle has a one year low of $112.78 and a one year high of $198.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $164.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $169.77.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.02). Oracle had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. The business had revenue of $14.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.41 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Oracle will post 5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 345,174 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.56, for a total value of $64,050,487.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $207,565,931.52. This trade represents a 23.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Oracle

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle during the fourth quarter worth $2,216,314,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle during the fourth quarter worth $930,095,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,825,360 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,303,858,000 after acquiring an additional 2,350,448 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 157,411,949 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $26,231,127,000 after acquiring an additional 2,296,069 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 268.4% during the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 3,077,947 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $512,909,000 after acquiring an additional 2,242,520 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

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.