Delta Financial Advisors LLC Lowers Holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Delta Financial Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,089 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 2,753 shares during the quarter. Oracle makes up 1.3% of Delta Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position. Delta Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $3,067,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Oracle during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE boosted its position in Oracle by 298.4% during the third quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 243 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management purchased a new position in Oracle during the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its position in Oracle by 1,268.0% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 342 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. boosted its position in Oracle by 139.4% during the fourth quarter. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. now owns 371 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total transaction of $99,966,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 is available through this hyperlink. 42.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ORCL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. HSBC raised their target price on Oracle from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. William Blair upgraded Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Oracle from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $130.76.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ORCL traded down $1.03 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $117.64. The company had a trading volume of 2,128,845 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,535,845. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market cap of $323.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.01. Oracle Co. has a twelve month low of $93.29 and a twelve month high of $132.77.

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

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.36%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.