Guardian Partners Inc. Takes $6.88 Million Position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Guardian Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 42,141 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,875,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Oracle by 5.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,416,362 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $411,748,000 after acquiring an additional 121,874 shares during the last quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Oracle by 201.7% during the fourth quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,599 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069 shares in the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders lifted its stake in shares of Oracle by 383.4% during the fourth quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 7,155 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,675 shares in the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Oracle by 24.8% during the fourth quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 164,593 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $27,428,000 after purchasing an additional 32,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the fourth quarter worth about $1,800,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of Oracle stock opened at $152.83 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65. The firm has a market cap of $427.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.07. Oracle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $112.78 and a fifty-two week high of $198.31. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $164.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $170.06.

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

Oracle Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This is a positive change from Oracle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is 46.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Oracle from $200.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. StockNews.com cut Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Oracle from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Oracle from $175.00 to $150.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.20.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 345,174 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.56, for a total transaction of $64,050,487.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,565,931.52. This represents a 23.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 42.20% of the company’s stock.

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.