Avity Investment Management Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Oracle Corporation $ORCL

Key Points

• Avity Investment Management cut its Oracle stake by 87.7% in the third quarter, selling 159,550 shares and retaining 22,285 shares valued at approximately $3.06 million.
• Oracle reported quarterly earnings of $1.92 per share, exceeding the $1.74 analyst estimate, while revenue rose 29.6% year over year to $19.34 billion.
• Oracle declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, equivalent to a $2.00 annualized payout and a 1.4% yield; analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with a $251.72 average price target.

Avity Investment Management Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 87.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,285 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after selling 159,550 shares during the quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Oracle were worth $3,060,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Basso Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Oracle during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Maseco LLP purchased a new stake in Oracle during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in Oracle in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH bought a new stake in Oracle in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Markowski Investments purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, CEO Michael Sicilia sold 22,562 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.59, for a total transaction of $3,420,173.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 182,929 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,730,207.11. This trade represents a 10.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Stephen Rusckowski bought 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $139.35 per share, with a total value of $3,483,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 25,390 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,538,096.50. The trade was a 6,410.26% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,075 shares of company stock worth $5,342,123. 38.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Oracle Stock Up 4.3%

ORCL traded up $5.87 on Friday, hitting $141.56. The company had a trading volume of 25,487,253 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,400,031. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $146.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $159.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $428.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.78. Oracle Corporation has a 52-week low of $114.50 and a 52-week high of $322.54.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $19.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.13 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 48.85% and a net margin of 26.36%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 29.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.47 EPS. Oracle has set its Q2 2027 guidance at 1.850-1.930 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 8.100-8.100 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 6.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. Oracle's payout ratio is presently 31.35%.

Key Headlines Impacting Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: A bullish analyst view helped support the recovery. Mizuho added Oracle to its top-picks list with a $320 price target, citing strong demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and AI services. Oracle added to Mizuho Top Picks
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continue to point to Oracle’s growing cloud backlog, recent earnings beats and strong infrastructure growth as evidence that the long-term AI opportunity remains intact despite the stock’s decline from its yearly high. Oracle cloud backlog and potential upside
• Positive Sentiment: Oracle is using trucked natural gas to keep data-center construction moving while pipeline infrastructure is delayed, including consideration of the approach for its 2.45-gigawatt New Mexico project. This could reduce schedule risk, though it may raise operating costs. Oracle trucks natural gas to AI data centers
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle signed a virtual power-purchase agreement for Texas wind power, supporting its goal of investing in more than 1.7 gigawatts of renewable-energy projects. The agreement may improve the company’s energy profile but is unlikely to materially affect near-term earnings. Oracle Texas wind-power agreement
• Negative Sentiment: OpenAI’s reported annualized revenue of roughly $50 billion was below the previously circulated $68 billion figure. Although the difference reportedly reflects measurement and accounting rather than weaker demand, it renewed concerns about Oracle’s exposure to a small number of major AI customers. OpenAI revenue report pressures AI stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Oracle is pursuing large-scale private financing to buy AI chips have raised concerns about leverage, fixed-margin cloud contracts and the risk of overbuilding capacity. Separately, unusual options activity appeared tilted toward bearish call spreads, while Mar Vista disclosed exiting its Oracle position as the stock’s rally reduced its margin of safety. Oracle AI chip financing

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ORCL shares. Stephens reiterated an "equal weight" rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, September 11th. Rothschild & Co Redburn dropped their target price on shares of Oracle from $155.00 to $110.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 20th. Wolfe Research restated an "outperform" rating and set a $225.00 price target (down from $275.00) on shares of Oracle in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Oracle from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Oracle from $220.00 to $195.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Oracle has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $251.72.

Oracle Profile

Oracle Corporation NYSE: ORCL is a global technology company that develops enterprise software, cloud services and related hardware. Its offerings help businesses manage databases, applications, data, infrastructure and other core information-technology operations.

The company is best known for its Oracle Database, along with cloud-based infrastructure and platform services. Oracle also provides enterprise applications for functions such as finance, human resources, supply-chain management, customer experience and industry-specific operations.

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