LPL Financial LLC Raises Holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

LPL Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 8.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,612,950 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 131,167 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Oracle worth $274,847,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Oracle by 2.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 13,242,340 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,869,816,000 after purchasing an additional 296,866 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Oracle by 148.8% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 12,872,300 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,616,855,000 after purchasing an additional 7,699,141 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Oracle by 6.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,318,962 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,033,430,000 after purchasing an additional 424,500 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Oracle by 0.9% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,182,917 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,015,862,000 after purchasing an additional 66,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in Oracle by 32.3% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,037,100 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $756,100,000 after purchasing an additional 1,473,734 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In other Oracle news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,042,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,889 shares in the company, valued at $7,076,685. This trade represents a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Oracle from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Oracle from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Melius Research raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $160.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $169.52.

Oracle Price Performance

ORCL opened at $192.81 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $175.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $148.68. Oracle Co. has a 52-week low of $99.26 and a 52-week high of $196.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68. The company has a market cap of $534.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 1.02.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $13.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.23 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 20.40% and a return on equity of 171.38%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.95 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.24%.

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.