Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Up 3.5% – Still a Buy?

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCLGet Free Report)’s stock price shot up 3.5% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $189.18 and last traded at $187.50. 32,043,419 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 13% from the average session volume of 28,285,539 shares. The stock had previously closed at $181.17.

More Oracle News

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ORCL. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Oracle from $310.00 to $230.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Melius Research set a $160.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a report on Monday, February 9th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Oracle from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $260.71.

Get Our Latest Analysis on Oracle

Oracle Stock Up 3.5%

The stock has a market capitalization of $539.26 billion, a PE ratio of 33.66, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.60. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $152.94 and its 200-day moving average is $194.26. 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:ORCLGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $17.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.91 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 25.30% and a return on equity of 62.70%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.47 earnings per share. Oracle has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.960-2.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Oracle Corporation will post 6.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.91%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.19, for a total transaction of $2,642,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 3,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $604,155.51. This represents a 81.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.23, for a total transaction of $1,552,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 134,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,805,476.90. This represents a 6.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 40.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in Oracle by 2.7% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 420,316 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $61,833,000 after buying an additional 11,218 shares in the last quarter. Kenora Financial LLC increased its holdings in Oracle by 1.8% in the first quarter. Kenora Financial LLC now owns 104,541 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $15,379,000 after buying an additional 1,808 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Oracle by 7.0% in the first quarter. Midwest Financial Group LLC now owns 2,903 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Caldwell Trust Co increased its holdings in Oracle by 5.1% in the first quarter. Caldwell Trust Co now owns 29,542 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $4,346,000 after buying an additional 1,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AGH Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Oracle by 5.6% in the first quarter. AGH Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,371 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Oracle

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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.

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