Poplar Forest Capital LLC Decreases Position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Poplar Forest Capital LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 17.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,138 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 1,050 shares during the quarter. Poplar Forest Capital LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $542,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ORCL. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Oracle during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE lifted its stake in Oracle by 298.4% in the third quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 243 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Oracle in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC lifted its stake in Oracle by 1,268.0% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 342 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in Oracle by 139.4% in the fourth quarter. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. now owns 371 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle 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 approximately $141,546,631.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 42.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Oracle Stock Up 0.3 %

Oracle stock traded up $0.30 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $115.39. 5,787,354 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,500,789. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $119.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $113.05. The company has a market cap of $317.15 billion, a PE ratio of 30.45, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 Co. has a fifty-two week low of $93.29 and a fifty-two week high of $132.77.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.29 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 336.11% and a net margin of 20.27%. Oracle’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.96 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Oracle Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.39%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ORCL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Oracle from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. KeyCorp initiated coverage on Oracle in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 price objective for the company. HSBC boosted their price objective on Oracle from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Oracle from $126.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, William Blair raised Oracle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.76.

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.