Waterloo Capital L.P. Increases Holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Waterloo Capital L.P. lifted its position in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 6.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,934 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after buying an additional 510 shares during the period. Waterloo Capital L.P.’s holdings in Oracle were worth $1,261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Oracle by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 151,213,890 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $18,993,977,000 after purchasing an additional 1,514,569 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Oracle by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,466,713 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,319,604,000 after purchasing an additional 82,551 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its stake in Oracle by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 14,599,902 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,539,268,000 after purchasing an additional 2,191,342 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Oracle by 148.8% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 12,872,300 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,616,855,000 after purchasing an additional 7,699,141 shares during the period. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC increased its stake in Oracle by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 12,339,385 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,300,941,000 after purchasing an additional 697,961 shares during the period. 42.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ORCL. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Oracle from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. JMP Securities upgraded Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Oracle from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Oracle from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Argus lifted their price objective on Oracle from $145.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Oracle presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $163.88.

Oracle Trading Down 1.8 %

Oracle stock opened at $164.49 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $141.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $131.19. Oracle Co. has a 12 month low of $99.26 and a 12 month high of $173.99. The company has a market capitalization of $453.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.01.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.06. Oracle had a return on equity of 171.38% and a net margin of 20.40%. The firm had revenue of $13.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Oracle Co. will post 5.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,042,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 42,889 shares in the company, valued at $7,076,685. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Leon E. Panetta sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.89, for a total transaction of $2,068,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 58,090 shares in the company, valued at $8,010,030.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,042,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,076,685. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,610,402 shares of company stock worth $230,556,257 over the last quarter. 42.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.