K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc Makes New Investment in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc bought a new position in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 6,850 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock, valued at approximately $722,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ORCL. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 9,299.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,170,999 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $865,472,000 after acquiring an additional 8,084,067 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 5.7% in 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 during the period. DNB Asset Management AS increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 313.4% in the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 1,766,621 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $186,255,000 after acquiring an additional 1,339,311 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 26,602.4% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,259,550 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $132,794,000 after acquiring an additional 1,254,833 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 35.2% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 3,168,969 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $331,221,000 after acquiring an additional 825,030 shares during the period. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total value of $99,966,600.00. Following 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 is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ORCL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Oracle from $126.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. William Blair upgraded shares of Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Oracle from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.76.

Oracle Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of ORCL stock traded up $2.32 during trading on Friday, hitting $117.21. 8,355,111 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,810,524. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $322.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.11. Oracle Co. has a twelve month low of $93.29 and a twelve month high of $132.77.

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

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

About Oracle

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.