Verity & Verity LLC Buys 9,537 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Verity & Verity LLC raised its stake in Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 260.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,200 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after purchasing an additional 9,537 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC's holdings in Oracle were worth $2,200,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ORCL. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Oracle by 16,023.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,065,083 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $351,890,000 after acquiring an additional 2,052,275 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Oracle by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,480,384 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $3,370,640,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917,416 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Oracle by 2.7% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its position in Oracle by 5,853.1% in the second quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 1,552,580 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $219,224,000 after buying an additional 1,526,500 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Oracle from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Oracle from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. 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 report on Tuesday, December 10th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Oracle from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $182.73.

Oracle Stock Up 0.9 %

ORCL traded up $1.51 on Friday, reaching $161.05. 11,593,649 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,912,798. The company has a market cap of $450.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.38, a PEG ratio of 3.03 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. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $175.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $161.34. Oracle Co. has a 52-week low of $106.51 and a 52-week high of $198.31.

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

Oracle Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. Oracle's dividend payout ratio is 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.