Altrius Capital Management Inc Decreases Holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Altrius Capital Management Inc lowered its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,277 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 74 shares during the period. Altrius Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Oracle were worth $1,046,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ORCL. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Oracle by 11.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,480,384 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $3,370,640,000 after buying an additional 1,917,416 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 2.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 70,441,556 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $12,003,241,000 after buying an additional 1,847,561 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Oracle by 3,805.0% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 966,571 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $161,069,000 after acquiring an additional 941,819 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Oracle by 279.7% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,210,745 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $201,759,000 after buying an additional 891,842 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 2.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,194,683 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $5,977,015,000 after acquiring an additional 885,041 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Safra Catz sold 345,174 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.56, for a total value of $64,050,487.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $207,565,931.52. This represents a 23.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 42.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ORCL. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Oracle from $145.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective 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. UBS Group upped their target price on Oracle from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Oracle from $157.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.73.

Oracle Stock Performance

NYSE:ORCL opened at $164.71 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $460.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.27, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. Oracle Co. has a 52-week low of $110.36 and a 52-week high of $198.31. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $169.00 and its 200-day moving average is $168.13.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.48 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.12 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.34 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Oracle’s payout ratio is presently 39.12%.

Oracle 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.