Appleton Partners Inc. MA Has $987,000 Stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA boosted its stake in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 31.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,923 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,434 shares during the quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Oracle were worth $987,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Platform Technology Partners lifted its holdings in Oracle by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 10,209 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,701,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the period. Exane Asset Management raised its position in shares of Oracle by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. Exane Asset Management now owns 11,148 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,924,000 after acquiring an additional 2,052 shares in the last quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Oracle by 9,926.5% in the 4th quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. now owns 127,337 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $21,219,000 after purchasing an additional 126,067 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Oracle during the fourth quarter worth approximately $400,000. Finally, Centerline Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Oracle in the fourth quarter worth approximately $295,000. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ORCL. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Oracle from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 1st. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on Oracle in a research report on Friday, January 17th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $214.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.73.

Oracle Stock Performance

Shares of ORCL opened at $174.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $488.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.05. Oracle Co. has a 52-week low of $106.51 and a 52-week high of $198.31. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $170.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $164.11.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.12 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 133.25%. Oracle’s revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.34 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Oracle Co. will post 5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Oracle’s payout ratio is currently 39.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Oracle news, CEO Safra Catz sold 345,174 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.56, for a total transaction of $64,050,487.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $207,565,931.52. The trade was a 23.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.