Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Down 3.3% – What’s Next?

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s stock price fell 3.3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $183.27 and last traded at $186.6010. 19,026,006 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 31% from the average session volume of 27,631,391 shares. The stock had previously closed at $192.95.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on ORCL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Oracle from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $230.00 to $210.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Melius Research set a $160.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a report on Monday, February 9th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Oracle from $300.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Oracle from $220.00 to $215.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Oracle from $400.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $261.46.

Oracle Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $536.67 billion, a PE ratio of 33.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.55. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $162.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $182.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.66.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.08. Oracle had a net margin of 25.30% and a return on equity of 62.70%. The firm had revenue of $17.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.91 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.47 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Oracle has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.960-2.000 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Oracle news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.19, for a total value of $2,642,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 3,429 shares in the company, valued at $604,155.51. This represents a 81.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 40.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Oracle

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Oracle in the 4th quarter worth $4,336,031,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Oracle by 2,062.4% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 9,227,252 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,595,072,000 after purchasing an additional 8,800,546 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Oracle by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,137,126 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $5,874,070,000 after purchasing an additional 6,826,299 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Oracle by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 174,802,084 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $34,070,674,000 after buying an additional 5,841,584 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 882.3% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 4,991,010 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $972,798,000 after buying an additional 4,482,934 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Company Profile

Oracle Corporation is a multinational technology company that develops and sells database software, cloud engineered systems, enterprise software applications and related services. The company is widely known for its flagship Oracle Database and a portfolio of enterprise-grade software products that support data management, application development, analytics and middleware. Over recent years Oracle has expanded its focus to include cloud infrastructure and cloud applications, positioning itself as a provider of both platform and software-as-a-service solutions for large organizations.

Oracle’s product and service offerings include Oracle Database and the Autonomous Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM) and supply chain management (SCM) cloud applications (often grouped under Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications), middleware such as WebLogic, and developer technologies including Java and MySQL.