Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Acquires 253 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,749 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Oracle were worth $817,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Oracle by 5.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 7,883,515 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Oracle by 2.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,570,528 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Oracle by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,502,544 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,675,878,000 after acquiring an additional 1,794,080 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Oracle by 3.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 635,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,409,896,000. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ORCL has been the subject of several analyst reports. William Blair raised shares of Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Oracle from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of Oracle in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 target price for the company. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. Finally, HSBC raised their target price 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. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Oracle presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.76.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In related news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 42.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Oracle Stock Up 0.6 %

ORCL opened at $120.62 on Wednesday. Oracle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $93.29 and a fifty-two week high of $132.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. The company has a market capitalization of $331.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $119.25 and a 200-day moving average of $112.73.

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

Oracle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

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.