Oracle Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 (NYSE:ORCL)

Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, September 9th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the enterprise software provider on Thursday, October 24th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.14%.

Oracle has increased its dividend payment by an average of 16.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Oracle has a payout ratio of 22.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Oracle to earn $5.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.0%.

Oracle Stock Performance

NYSE ORCL traded down $1.92 during trading on Monday, reaching $139.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 15,450,328 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,099,454. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $138.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $128.62. Oracle has a twelve month low of $99.26 and a twelve month high of $146.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.25, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market cap of $385.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.01.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.07. Oracle had a return on equity of 223.01% and a net margin of 19.76%. The company had revenue of $13.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.23 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Oracle will post 5.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, Director Leon E. Panetta sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.89, for a total value of $2,068,350.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 58,090 shares in the company, valued at $8,010,030.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Leon E. Panetta sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.89, for a total value of $2,068,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 58,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,010,030.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Lawrence Joseph Ellison sold 1,125,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.69, for a total transaction of $161,651,250.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,145,732,353 shares in the company, valued at $164,630,281,802.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,862,500 shares of company stock worth $266,776,624. 42.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on ORCL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Oracle from $110.00 to $120.00 in a report on Monday. StockNews.com cut Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Oracle from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Oracle from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $146.30.

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.