Nicholas Investment Partners LP Buys New Position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Nicholas Investment Partners LP purchased a new position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,544 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 3.1% in the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 73,791 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $6,105,000 after buying an additional 2,221 shares during the period. AMI Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 2.9% in the first quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,467 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,693,000 after purchasing an additional 579 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 29.2% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 588,460 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $48,686,000 after buying an additional 132,920 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its holdings in Oracle by 79.6% during the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 6,854 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $567,000 after buying an additional 3,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its position in Oracle by 125.2% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,995 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $165,000 after buying an additional 1,109 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other Oracle news, Director George H. Conrades sold 2,325 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.76, for a total transaction of $264,492.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,029,023.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ORCL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Oracle from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $112.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 13th. DZ Bank upgraded Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $125.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 14th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, September 22nd. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Oracle from $150.00 to $147.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Oracle from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $131.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Monday, October 9th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $124.23.

Oracle Price Performance

ORCL traded up $1.54 on Thursday, reaching $115.60. 1,008,030 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,875,304. Oracle Co. has a twelve month low of $78.06 and a twelve month high of $127.54. The stock has a market cap of $316.67 billion, a PE ratio of 33.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.72, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $109.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $111.35.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, September 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Oracle had a negative return on equity of 3,631.39% and a net margin of 18.40%. The business had revenue of $12.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 12th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 11th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.62%.

Oracle 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.