Martin Capital Advisors LLP Buys 170 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Martin Capital Advisors LLP lifted its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 16,783 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the quarter. Oracle accounts for about 1.5% of Martin Capital Advisors LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Martin Capital Advisors LLP’s holdings in Oracle were worth $1,769,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ORCL. Sandy Spring Bank raised its position in shares of Oracle by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Sandy Spring Bank now owns 78,049 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $8,229,000 after buying an additional 1,107 shares in the last quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 5,986 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $631,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter valued at about $229,000. Cooper Financial Group grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 43.4% during the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 5,038 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Oracle in the fourth quarter worth approximately $171,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ORCL. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. StockNews.com lowered Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Oracle from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $126.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.76.

Oracle Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:ORCL traded down $1.12 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $114.88. The company had a trading volume of 8,168,869 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,593,083. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $119.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $112.80. The company has a market capitalization of $315.75 billion, a PE ratio of 30.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.01. Oracle Co. has a 52 week low of $93.29 and a 52 week high of $132.77.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, March 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.04. Oracle had a net margin of 20.27% and a return on equity of 336.11%. The firm had revenue of $13.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.96 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Oracle Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Oracle’s payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In other Oracle news, CEO Safra Catz sold 790,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 42.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.