Red Tortoise LLC Decreases Position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Red Tortoise LLC lowered its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 3.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,153 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 140 shares during the quarter. Red Tortoise LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $438,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Oracle by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 147,273,413 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $15,599,200,000 after buying an additional 7,883,515 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Oracle by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,586,810 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $5,815,566,000 after buying an additional 1,570,528 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Oracle by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,502,544 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,675,878,000 after buying an additional 1,794,080 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Oracle by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,718,180 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,982,630,000 after buying an additional 635,994 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Oracle in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,409,896,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Argus raised shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. William Blair raised shares of Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Oracle from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Oracle in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.76.

Oracle Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of ORCL stock traded down $1.95 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $118.67. The stock had a trading volume of 5,348,468 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,624,893. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $119.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $112.73. Oracle Co. has a 52-week low of $93.29 and a 52-week high of $132.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $326.16 billion, a PE ratio of 31.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.41 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $13.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Oracle’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total transaction of $99,966,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $141,546,631.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

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.