Wharton Business Group LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Wharton Business Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 2.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,358 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 111 shares during the quarter. Wharton Business Group LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $743,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 1st quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 2nd quarter worth $40,000. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ORCL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Oracle from $201.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Oracle from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Oracle from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Oracle from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $169.52.

Oracle Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $184.48 on Monday. Oracle Co. has a 12 month low of $99.26 and a 12 month high of $191.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $511.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.36, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50-day moving average of $172.14 and a 200-day moving average of $147.06.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.06. Oracle had a return on equity of 171.38% and a net margin of 20.40%. The company had revenue of $13.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. Oracle’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Oracle’s payout ratio is 41.24%.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other Oracle news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $1,042,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,076,685. This represents a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 42.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.