Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Purchases 253 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,749 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Oracle were worth $817,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. Orion Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Oracle in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE boosted its stake in Oracle by 298.4% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management bought a new position in Oracle in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its stake in Oracle by 1,268.0% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. boosted its stake in Oracle by 139.4% in the 4th 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on ORCL shares. William Blair upgraded Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. HSBC raised their target price on Oracle from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Oracle from $126.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, December 22nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.76.

Insider Transactions 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 stock was sold at an average price of $126.54, for a total value of $99,966,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $141,546,631.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $120.62 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $119.25 and its 200 day moving average is $112.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34. Oracle Co. has a 1-year low of $93.29 and a 1-year high of $132.77. The stock has a market cap of $331.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.01.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its quarterly 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. Oracle had a return on equity of 336.11% and a net margin of 20.27%. The business had revenue of $13.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.29 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.96 EPS. Oracle’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Oracle Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given 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 1.33%. Oracle’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.