Oracle Corporation $ORCL Stock: Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Boosts Position

Key Points

• Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors increased its Oracle position by 26.5% in the third quarter, ending the period with 93,671 shares valued at about $12.9 million. Institutional investors collectively owned 42.44% of the stock.
• Oracle beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, reporting EPS of $1.92 and revenue of $19.34 billion, up 29.6% year over year. Analysts’ consensus rating was “Moderate Buy,” with an average price target of $249.27.
• Oracle’s AI infrastructure outlook faces reported customer and financing risks: coverage cited a lost Tencent chip-leasing deal and Microsoft winding down an AI-computing arrangement, while raising concerns about customer concentration and data-center spending.

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 26.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 93,671 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after acquiring an additional 19,597 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC's holdings in Oracle were worth $12,861,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in Oracle in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Strengthening Families & Communities LLC lifted its stake in Oracle by 231.3% in the 3rd quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 222 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on ORCL. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $284.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. CLSA began coverage on Oracle in a report on Monday, July 20th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $145.00 price target for the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Oracle from $250.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, September 11th. Melius Research set a $170.00 price objective on Oracle in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Freedom Broker dropped their price objective on Oracle from $210.00 to $205.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.27.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other Oracle news, Director Stephen Rusckowski acquired 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $139.35 per share, with a total value of $3,483,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 25,390 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,538,096.50. This trade represents a 6,410.26% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Maria Smith sold 2,631 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.70, for a total value of $399,122.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 64,357 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,762,956.90. The trade was a 3.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 36,075 shares of company stock worth $5,342,123 over the last quarter. 38.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Oracle Stock Performance

Shares of ORCL opened at $117.87 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. The company has a market capitalization of $356.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.79. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $137.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $154.83. Oracle Corporation has a 1 year low of $109.21 and a 1 year high of $250.25.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $19.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $19.13 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 26.36% and a return on equity of 48.85%. Oracle's revenue for the quarter was up 29.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company 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. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Oracle Corporation will post 6.71 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Oracle's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.35%.

Key Stories Impacting Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle broke ground on its future Nashville global headquarters, a long-term investment intended to support growth in cloud, AI and healthcare and create thousands of jobs. Oracle Nashville headquarters announcement
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched AI-assisted treasury and customer analytics applications for financial institutions, adding to its cloud and AI product offerings. Oracle financial analytics announcement
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle says renewed rentals of older GPUs were priced at a premium, suggesting some continued demand for its existing AI capacity; however, this does not offset uncertainty around specific customer contracts. Report on GPU renewals and Microsoft
• Negative Sentiment: Reports said Oracle lost an estimated $7 billion Tencent chip-leasing deal and that Microsoft is winding down an AI-computing arrangement, reportedly because Oracle’s older Nvidia chips no longer meet Microsoft’s requirements. These developments raise questions about infrastructure demand and Oracle’s ability to secure customers for its planned capacity. Report on Tencent and Microsoft contracts
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary highlighted concentration and financing risks: Oracle’s AI backlog is said to rely heavily on OpenAI, while its aggressive data-center spending increases exposure to debt, project execution and potential AI-market setbacks. Analysis of Oracle's balance sheet and AI contracts

Oracle Company Profile

Oracle Corporation is a technology company that develops and provides database software, cloud services, and enterprise applications. Its products help organizations manage data, run business operations, and build and deploy applications. Oracle's offerings include Oracle Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and cloud-based applications for functions such as finance, human resources, supply chain management, and customer experience. The company also provides software support, consulting, and related services.

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