Oracle Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 (NYSE:ORCL)

Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 10th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the enterprise software provider on Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th.

Oracle has raised its dividend by an average of 16.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Oracle has a dividend payout ratio of 22.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Oracle to earn $5.75 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.8%.

Oracle Stock Performance

Oracle stock traded down $12.71 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $177.74. The company had a trading volume of 26,095,552 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,380,413. Oracle has a one year low of $99.26 and a one year high of $198.31. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $179.76 and a 200 day moving average of $154.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market cap of $492.53 billion, a PE ratio of 45.81, a PEG ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 1.03.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.48 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.12 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 171.38% and a net margin of 20.40%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.34 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Oracle will post 5.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $1,042,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,889 shares in the company, valued at $7,076,685. This represents a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 42.20% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Oracle from $145.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. DA Davidson upped their target price on Oracle from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Oracle from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Oracle from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $181.48.

About Oracle

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.

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