Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Sets New 52-Week High After Dividend Announcement

Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Friday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $202.49 and last traded at $199.67, with a volume of 54558768 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $176.38.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. Oracle's dividend payout ratio is currently 46.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ORCL shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Oracle from $180.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group lifted their target price on Oracle from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Oracle from $150.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Oracle from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Oracle from $156.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $194.32.

Oracle Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $602.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $151.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $160.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.06. Oracle had a return on equity of 133.25% and a net margin of 21.16%. The firm had revenue of $15.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.63 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Oracle Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In related news, Director Leon E. Panetta sold 5,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.77, for a total value of $648,850.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 58,090 shares in the company, valued at $7,538,339.30. The trade was a 7.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley sold 400,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,097,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $209,000,421.92. The trade was a 26.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 427,366 shares of company stock valued at $80,183,723 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 42.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Oracle in the fourth quarter worth about $2,216,314,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Oracle in the 4th quarter worth approximately $930,095,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Oracle in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $732,692,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 15,012.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,755,096 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $664,810,000 after purchasing an additional 4,723,631 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 2.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,925,413 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $22,498,982,000 after purchasing an additional 3,513,464 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.