Meritage Portfolio Management Grows Stock Holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Meritage Portfolio Management increased its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 41.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,412 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Oracle were worth $360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 459.6% in the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 46,510 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $4,904,000 after purchasing an additional 38,198 shares in the last quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 70.6% in the fourth quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP now owns 4,397 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 1,820 shares in the last quarter. Bailard Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 189.3% in the fourth quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 79,636 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $8,396,000 after purchasing an additional 52,106 shares in the last quarter. BIP Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 6,369 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $672,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 38,422 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $4,051,000 after purchasing an additional 2,504 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other Oracle news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total transaction of $99,966,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 42.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Oracle Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of Oracle stock traded up $2.82 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $117.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,096,736 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,447,765. The company has a market capitalization of $323.53 billion, a PE ratio of 30.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day moving average of $119.30 and a 200 day moving average of $113.06. 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 Co. has a 1-year low of $93.29 and a 1-year high of $132.77.

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

Oracle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on ORCL. HSBC upped their price target on shares of Oracle from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Argus raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.76.

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.