Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Raised to Buy at Citigroup

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) was upgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $410.00 price objective on the enterprise software provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 69.65% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Oracle from $275.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Oracle from $175.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Oracle from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.52.

Oracle Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of ORCL stock opened at $241.67 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $240.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $187.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.07. Oracle has a 1 year low of $118.86 and a 1 year high of $260.87. The stock has a market cap of $678.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 1.46.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $15.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.58 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 87.34% and a net margin of 21.68%.Oracle’s quarterly revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Oracle will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, insider Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.10, for a total value of $3,211,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 60,722 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,000,580.20. This represents a 19.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley sold 400,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.42, for a total transaction of $76,168,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,097,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $209,000,421.92. This represents a 26.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 444,183 shares of company stock valued at $86,521,198. 42.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Oracle

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,275,378,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Oracle during the 1st quarter worth about $732,692,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Oracle by 15,012.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,755,096 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $664,810,000 after buying an additional 4,723,631 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Oracle by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,925,413 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $22,498,982,000 after buying an additional 3,513,464 shares during the period. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the second quarter valued at approximately $731,512,000. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.