Hilton Capital Management LLC Purchases 53,640 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Hilton Capital Management LLC raised its position in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 2,049.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,257 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,640 shares during the quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Oracle were worth $9,375,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ORCL. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 2.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 70,441,556 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $12,003,241,000 after buying an additional 1,847,561 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $5,977,015,000 after buying an additional 885,041 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 11.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,480,384 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $3,370,640,000 after buying an additional 1,917,416 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 17,995,664 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,998,798,000 after buying an additional 97,635 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 0.4% in the third 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 buying an additional 54,868 shares during the period. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ORCL. BNP Paribas raised Oracle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Oracle from $194.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada set a $145.00 target price on Oracle and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on Oracle from $214.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Oracle presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Oracle news, CEO Safra Catz sold 2,101,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.35, for a total value of $389,448,893.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,118,592 shares in the company, valued at $207,331,027.20. The trade was a 65.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Oracle Stock Performance

Shares of Oracle stock opened at $147.41 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $166.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $169.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $412.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.07. Oracle Co. has a 12 month low of $112.78 and a 12 month high of $198.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $14.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.40 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 133.25% and a net margin of 21.16%. The business’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Oracle Co. will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a positive change from Oracle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.12%.

Oracle Company 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.