Piper Sandler Increases Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Price Target to $175.00

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) had its price target raised by Piper Sandler from $150.00 to $175.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the enterprise software provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Oracle from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Oracle from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Oracle from $133.00 to $128.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Oracle from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Oracle presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $159.68.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of ORCL opened at $162.00 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $446.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.01. Oracle has a fifty-two week low of $99.26 and a fifty-two week high of $173.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The business’s 50-day moving average is $139.85 and its 200-day moving average is $129.90.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $13.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.23 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 171.38% and a net margin of 20.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.95 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Oracle will post 5.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. Oracle’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other Oracle news, Director Leon E. Panetta sold 15,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.89, for a total transaction of $2,068,350.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 58,090 shares in the company, valued at $8,010,030.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Oracle news, insider Edward Screven sold 235,918 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.30, for a total transaction of $34,042,967.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 2,626,764 shares in the company, valued at $379,042,045.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Leon E. Panetta sold 15,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.89, for a total transaction of $2,068,350.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 58,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,010,030.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,862,500 shares of company stock worth $266,776,624. Insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 1.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 151,213,890 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $18,993,977,000 after acquiring an additional 1,514,569 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 0.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,466,713 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,319,604,000 after acquiring an additional 82,551 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 14,599,902 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,539,268,000 after acquiring an additional 2,191,342 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 2.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 13,242,340 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,869,816,000 after acquiring an additional 296,866 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 148.8% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 12,872,300 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,616,855,000 after acquiring an additional 7,699,141 shares during the period. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.