Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Trading 1.5% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Oracle's stock rose 1.5% following an upgrade from Weiss Ratings, which changed its rating from hold to buy.
• Several research analysts have raised their target prices for Oracle, with Melius Research setting a new target at $370.00, significantly higher than previous estimates.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 0.7%, payable on October 23rd.

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report)'s share price traded up 1.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Weiss Ratings upgraded the stock from a hold (c+) rating to a buy (b-) rating. The company traded as high as $291.53 and last traded at $288.48. 18,711,058 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 26% from the average session volume of 14,846,009 shares. The stock had previously closed at $284.24.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Melius Research lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $270.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Westpark Capital lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $195.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $250.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $270.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $304.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Naomi O. Seligman sold 3,303 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 31,447 shares in the company, valued at $7,337,214.04. The trade was a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael D. Sicilia sold 33,845 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.16, for a total value of $10,869,660.20. Following the sale, the insider owned 132,656 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,603,800.96. This represents a 20.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 104,314 shares of company stock valued at $31,272,223 in the last three months. 40.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Oracle

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the second quarter valued at $4,275,378,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the first quarter valued at $732,692,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 3,513,464 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the second quarter valued at $731,512,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Oracle by 42.1% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,839,166 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $1,932,507,000 after buying an additional 2,619,722 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Oracle Stock Up 1.5%

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $264.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $207.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.33, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $822.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.53.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.48 by ($0.01). Oracle had a net margin of 21.08% and a return on equity of 72.93%. The company had revenue of $14.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.39 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Oracle has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.270-1.310 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 9th. Oracle's payout ratio is 46.30%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.