Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday.

ORCL has been the topic of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Oracle from $126.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. HSBC raised their price objective on Oracle from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Argus raised Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. William Blair raised Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, KeyCorp began coverage on Oracle in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 price objective on the stock. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.76.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ORCL traded up $0.54 on Tuesday, hitting $115.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,491,654 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,535,559. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $119.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $113.03. Oracle has a 1 year low of $93.29 and a 1 year high of $132.77. The company has a market capitalization of $316.27 billion, a PE ratio of 30.36, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.34, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $13.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.29 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.96 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Oracle will post 4.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In related 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 transaction of $99,966,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 42.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Oracle

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Oracle by 3.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,717 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $494,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Oracle by 70.1% during the third quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,650 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $810,000 after purchasing an additional 3,152 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Oracle by 2.7% during the third quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,051 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,124,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares in the last quarter. Sander Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Oracle by 74.5% during the third quarter. Sander Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 48,869 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $5,176,000 after purchasing an additional 20,869 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its position in shares of Oracle by 5.1% during the third quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 4,077 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $432,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.