Empirical Finance LLC Sells 221 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Empirical Finance LLC lowered its holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 44,872 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 221 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $7,477,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ORCL. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 89.7% during the 4th quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 184 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Finally, Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ORCL shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $173.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $145.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.73.

Oracle Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $174.53 on Friday. Oracle Co. has a 12-month low of $106.51 and a 12-month high of $198.31. The firm has a market cap of $488.15 billion, a PE ratio of 42.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $164.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by ($0.01). Oracle had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.34 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.12%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 345,174 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.56, for a total value of $64,050,487.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $207,565,931.52. This represents a 23.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Oracle Company 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.