Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Down 1.5% – What’s Next?

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s share price dropped 1.5% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $192.33 and last traded at $192.75. Approximately 22,415,450 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 21% from the average daily volume of 18,466,686 shares. The stock had previously closed at $195.71.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ORCL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Rothschild Redb raised shares of Oracle to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Barclays set a $310.00 target price on Oracle in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Oracle from $360.00 to $260.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Oracle from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $304.94.

Oracle Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $216.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $242.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $553.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.23, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.65.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.62. Oracle had a net margin of 25.28% and a return on equity of 70.60%. The company had revenue of $16.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.19 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.47 EPS. Oracle’s revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 9th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.59%.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In related news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 19,758 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $5,927,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 18,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,528,700. This represents a 51.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Mark Hura sold 15,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.89, for a total transaction of $2,953,350.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 234,077 shares in the company, valued at $46,087,420.53. This trade represents a 6.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 146,346 shares of company stock valued at $39,082,996 in the last three months. Company insiders own 40.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Oracle

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Oracle during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,275,378,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Oracle by 2,062.4% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 9,227,252 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,595,072,000 after purchasing an additional 8,800,546 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 2.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 168,960,500 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $47,518,451,000 after buying an additional 4,681,626 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 333.7% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,238,006 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,473,137,000 after buying an additional 4,030,382 shares during the period. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in Oracle during the 2nd quarter worth about $731,512,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

About Oracle

Oracle Corporation is a multinational technology company that develops and sells database software, cloud engineered systems, enterprise software applications and related services. The company is widely known for its flagship Oracle Database and a portfolio of enterprise-grade software products that support data management, application development, analytics and middleware. Over recent years Oracle has expanded its focus to include cloud infrastructure and cloud applications, positioning itself as a provider of both platform and software-as-a-service solutions for large organizations.

Oracle’s product and service offerings include Oracle Database and the Autonomous Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM) and supply chain management (SCM) cloud applications (often grouped under Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications), middleware such as WebLogic, and developer technologies including Java and MySQL.