Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. Cuts Holdings in Oracle Corporation $ORCL

Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. cut its position in shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) by 26.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 102,003 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 36,930 shares during the quarter. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Oracle were worth $19,881,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Oracle by 189.3% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 153,580 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $25,593,000 after acquiring an additional 100,494 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Oracle by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,418 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $903,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Oracle by 21.5% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,348 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $951,000 after acquiring an additional 768 shares during the period. United Bank raised its position in Oracle by 6.8% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 15,038 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,288,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares during the period. Finally, Schnieders Capital Management LLC. raised its position in Oracle by 19.2% in the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 52,856 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $11,556,000 after acquiring an additional 8,530 shares during the period. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Oracle Stock Performance

Oracle stock opened at $188.26 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $186.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $177.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $541.45 billion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.65. Oracle Corporation has a 1-year low of $134.57 and a 1-year high of $345.72.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, June 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.96 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $19.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.10 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 25.37% and a return on equity of 56.43%. Oracle’s revenue was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.70 EPS. Oracle has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.720-1.760 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 8.050-8.050 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 6.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is 34.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.19, for a total value of $2,642,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 3,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $604,155.51. The trade was a 81.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 40.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $319.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.27.

Oracle News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle continued to highlight strong AI and cloud momentum, including new OPERA Cloud AI features for hotels and broader demand for its enterprise software and infrastructure, reinforcing the company’s long-term growth story. New AI Capabilities in Oracle OPERA Cloud Supercharge Hotel Operations
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts and commentators reiterated a bullish view, pointing to Oracle’s huge backlog, improving monetization of AI demand, and the possibility that the market is underestimating its future revenue conversion. Oracle: Discounted AI Story With Outsized Monetization Prospects – Reiterate Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Oracle said details in a report about failed Microsoft cloud leasing talks were inaccurate, limiting the chance that the headline would become a lasting negative if the market views it as overblown. Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure talks with Oracle collapse, Business Insider reports
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle also announced more customer adoption of its cloud applications, including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health using Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications to improve operations and care. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Optimizes Operations and Patient Care with Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
• Negative Sentiment: Investor anxiety increased after reports that Microsoft walked away from a potential Oracle cloud infrastructure deal worth more than $3 billion over security and compliance concerns, raising questions about near-term deal execution. Microsoft walked away from a $3 billion deal to lease Oracle cloud capacity over security concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Some market commentary also focused on Oracle’s heavy debt load and the cost of its large AI and cloud investment plans, which have fueled concerns about capital spending and financial flexibility. Oracle’s Massive Debt Problem

About Oracle

Oracle Corporation is a multinational technology company that develops and sells database software, cloud engineered systems, enterprise software applications and related services. The company is widely known for its flagship Oracle Database and a portfolio of enterprise-grade software products that support data management, application development, analytics and middleware. Over recent years Oracle has expanded its focus to include cloud infrastructure and cloud applications, positioning itself as a provider of both platform and software-as-a-service solutions for large organizations.

Oracle’s product and service offerings include Oracle Database and the Autonomous Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM) and supply chain management (SCM) cloud applications (often grouped under Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications), middleware such as WebLogic, and developer technologies including Java and MySQL.