Sandy Spring Bank Decreases Stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Sandy Spring Bank lessened its stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 77,203 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 3,103 shares during the quarter. Sandy Spring Bank’s holdings in Oracle were worth $12,865,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ORCL. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Oracle in the 4th quarter worth approximately $930,095,000. Polen Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Oracle by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC now owns 10,723,731 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,787,003,000 after buying an additional 1,955,764 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Oracle by 11.6% during the 3rd 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 boosted its stake in shares of Oracle by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 70,441,556 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $12,003,241,000 after buying an additional 1,847,561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Oracle by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 12,327,164 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,012,943,000 after buying an additional 1,623,609 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on ORCL. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Oracle from $200.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Oracle from $210.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Oracle from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho upped 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. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Oracle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.20.

Oracle Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of ORCL stock opened at $152.40 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $165.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $169.89. Oracle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $112.78 and a fifty-two week high of $198.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $426.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.02). Oracle had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. The firm had revenue of $14.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.41 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Oracle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.95%.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In related news, CEO Safra Catz sold 345,174 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.56, for a total value of $64,050,487.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $207,565,931.52. This trade represents a 23.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.