Ashford Capital Management Inc. Invests $1.33 Million in Oracle Corporation $ORCL

Key Points

• Ashford Capital Management opened a new position in Oracle during the fourth quarter, buying 6,828 shares valued at about $1.33 million.
• Oracle continues to attract major institutional interest, with firms like Vanguard, State Street, Geode, and Capital Research increasing their stakes; institutions and insiders collectively own a significant portion of the stock.
• Analysts remain generally bullish on Oracle, with multiple firms raising price targets and the consensus rating at Moderate Buy, even as some investors weigh concerns about debt and recent cloud-deal execution headlines.

Ashford Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 6,828 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,331,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Oracle by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 174,802,084 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $34,070,674,000 after purchasing an additional 5,841,584 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Oracle by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,527,759 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $14,916,026,000 after acquiring an additional 3,216,915 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Oracle by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 37,734,944 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $7,328,754,000 after acquiring an additional 665,374 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Oracle by 29.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,137,126 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $5,874,070,000 after acquiring an additional 6,826,299 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Oracle by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 27,125,099 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $5,286,953,000 after acquiring an additional 495,146 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle continued to highlight strong AI and cloud momentum, including new OPERA Cloud AI features for hotels and broader demand for its enterprise software and infrastructure, reinforcing the company’s long-term growth story. New AI Capabilities in Oracle OPERA Cloud Supercharge Hotel Operations
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts and commentators reiterated a bullish view, pointing to Oracle’s huge backlog, improving monetization of AI demand, and the possibility that the market is underestimating its future revenue conversion. Oracle: Discounted AI Story With Outsized Monetization Prospects - Reiterate Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Oracle said details in a report about failed Microsoft cloud leasing talks were inaccurate, limiting the chance that the headline would become a lasting negative if the market views it as overblown. Microsoft's cloud infrastructure talks with Oracle collapse, Business Insider reports
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle also announced more customer adoption of its cloud applications, including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health using Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications to improve operations and care. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Optimizes Operations and Patient Care with Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
• Negative Sentiment: Investor anxiety increased after reports that Microsoft walked away from a potential Oracle cloud infrastructure deal worth more than $3 billion over security and compliance concerns, raising questions about near-term deal execution. Microsoft walked away from a $3 billion deal to lease Oracle cloud capacity over security concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Some market commentary also focused on Oracle’s heavy debt load and the cost of its large AI and cloud investment plans, which have fueled concerns about capital spending and financial flexibility. Oracle's Massive Debt Problem

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on ORCL. Mizuho set a $320.00 price target on Oracle in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. UBS Group raised their price target on Oracle from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Oracle from $235.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Oracle from $275.00 to $220.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $268.27.

Insider Activity

In other Oracle news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.19, for a total transaction of $2,642,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 3,429 shares in the company, valued at $604,155.51. The trade was a 81.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 40.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Oracle Price Performance

NYSE ORCL opened at $188.26 on Wednesday. Oracle Corporation has a one year low of $134.57 and a one year high of $345.72. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $186.43 and a 200 day moving average of $177.61. The company has a market capitalization of $541.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.84, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.15. Oracle had a return on equity of 56.43% and a net margin of 25.37%.The company had revenue of $19.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.70 EPS. Oracle's revenue for the quarter was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. Oracle has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.720-1.760 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 8.050-8.050 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Oracle Corporation will post 6.46 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 10th. Oracle's payout ratio is currently 34.31%.

Oracle Profile

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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