New Hampshire Trust Trims Stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

New Hampshire Trust lessened its stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 9.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,313 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after selling 137 shares during the quarter. New Hampshire Trust’s holdings in Oracle were worth $219,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Oracle by 2.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 70,441,556 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $12,003,241,000 after buying an additional 1,847,561 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Oracle by 2.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,194,683 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $5,977,015,000 after acquiring an additional 885,041 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Oracle by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,480,384 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,370,640,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917,416 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Oracle by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 17,898,029 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $3,049,824,000 after acquiring an additional 310,709 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 14,608,951 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,489,345,000 after purchasing an additional 54,868 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on ORCL. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Oracle from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $145.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $157.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Oracle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.73.

Oracle Stock Performance

Oracle stock opened at $161.05 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $161.58. The stock has a market cap of $450.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Oracle Co. has a 1-year low of $106.51 and a 1-year high of $198.31.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.48 by ($0.01). Oracle had a return on equity of 133.25% and a net margin of 21.16%. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.34 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Oracle Co. will post 5.01 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Investors 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 yield of 0.99%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.12%.

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.