Simmons Bank Trims Position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Simmons Bank reduced its holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 45,883 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 797 shares during the period. Simmons Bank’s holdings in Oracle were worth $7,818,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Oracle in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Oracle in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle during the second quarter worth about $35,000. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the 1st quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in Oracle in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other Oracle news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,042,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,076,685. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Oracle Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $189.60 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $169.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $145.54. Oracle Co. has a twelve month low of $99.26 and a twelve month high of $191.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $525.39 billion, a PE ratio of 48.87, a PEG ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 1.02.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $13.31 billion during 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%. Oracle’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on ORCL shares. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Oracle from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Oracle from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Oracle from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.52.

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.