StockNews.com Upgrades Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) to Buy

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday.

A number of other analysts have also commented on ORCL. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Oracle in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 price objective for the company. William Blair upgraded Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Oracle from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on Oracle in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $130.76.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $115.39 on Tuesday. Oracle has a twelve month low of $93.29 and a twelve month high of $132.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34. The company has a market capitalization of $317.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.45, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $119.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $113.05.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.04. Oracle had a net margin of 20.27% and a return on equity of 336.11%. The company had revenue of $13.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.96 EPS. Oracle’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Oracle will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total value of $99,966,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 42.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ORCL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the fourth quarter valued at $1,210,181,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 9,299.3% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,170,999 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $865,472,000 after acquiring an additional 8,084,067 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 5.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 147,273,413 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $15,599,200,000 after acquiring an additional 7,883,515 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 382.4% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,563,366 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $481,820,000 after acquiring an additional 3,617,413 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 22.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,384,162 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,938,242,000 after acquiring an additional 3,323,334 shares during the period. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Oracle Company 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.