Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Raised to Buy at Citigroup

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) was upgraded by Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $410.00 price objective on the enterprise software provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 69.65% from the company’s current price.

ORCL has been the subject of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Oracle from $175.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Oracle from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Oracle from $270.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.52.

Oracle Stock Up 1.3%

ORCL stock opened at $241.67 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $678.81 billion, a PE ratio of 55.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.07, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $240.23 and its 200 day moving average is $187.60. Oracle has a one year low of $118.86 and a one year high of $260.87.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, June 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $15.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.58 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 21.68% and a return on equity of 87.34%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Oracle will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In other news, EVP Maria Smith sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.99, for a total transaction of $2,329,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 40,807 shares in the company, valued at $9,507,622.93. The trade was a 19.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley sold 400,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.42, for a total value of $76,168,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,097,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $209,000,421.92. This represents a 26.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 444,183 shares of company stock valued at $86,521,198. 42.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Oracle

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ORCL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Oracle in the second quarter valued at about $4,275,378,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Oracle in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $732,692,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Oracle by 15,012.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,755,096 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $664,810,000 after purchasing an additional 4,723,631 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Oracle by 2.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,925,413 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $22,498,982,000 after purchasing an additional 3,513,464 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $731,512,000. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

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.