11,000 Shares in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) Bought by Advisors Preferred LLC

Advisors Preferred LLC acquired a new position in shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,000 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,561,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 1,848.3% during the first quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 315,378 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $47,986,000 after purchasing an additional 299,191 shares during the last quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 11.9% during the first quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC now owns 185,722 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $25,966,000 after purchasing an additional 19,693 shares during the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 40.7% during the first quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 22,577 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $3,157,000 after purchasing an additional 6,527 shares during the last quarter. Granite Group Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 28.3% during the first quarter. Granite Group Advisors LLC now owns 2,726 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in shares of Oracle during the first quarter worth about $518,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ORCL. TD Cowen raised their price target on Oracle from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Bank of America raised their price target on Oracle from $156.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Oracle from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Oracle from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $218.29.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of Oracle stock traded up $2.22 on Friday, hitting $245.05. The company had a trading volume of 7,146,126 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,472,494. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $204.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $171.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.07, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The company has a market cap of $688.31 billion, a PE ratio of 56.46, a PEG ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 1.39. Oracle Corporation has a 52 week low of $118.86 and a 52 week high of $251.60.

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

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. Oracle's payout ratio is 46.08%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley sold 400,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.42, for a total transaction of $76,168,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,097,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $209,000,421.92. This trade represents a 26.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Naomi O. Seligman sold 3,303 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.32, for a total transaction of $770,655.96. Following the sale, the director owned 31,447 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,337,214.04. The trade was a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 448,669 shares of company stock valued at $85,555,309 in the last ninety days. 42.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.