Eastern Bank Purchases 106,982 Shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL)

Eastern Bank boosted its position in shares of Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) by 59.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 286,475 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 106,982 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Oracle were worth $48,815,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Oracle by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 43,987 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $7,495,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Oracle by 61.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 210,362 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $35,846,000 after purchasing an additional 80,293 shares in the last quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter worth about $216,000. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of Oracle by 16.6% during the third quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. now owns 14,886 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,537,000 after purchasing an additional 2,117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 6.1% during the third quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 15,746 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,683,000 after buying an additional 899 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Oracle from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Oracle from $105.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Oracle from $160.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $168.67.

Oracle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ORCL traded up $1.14 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $174.90. The company had a trading volume of 1,957,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,407,668. The firm has a market capitalization of $482.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.01. Oracle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $99.26 and a fifty-two week high of $178.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $157.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $139.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.68, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, September 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $13.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.23 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 20.40% and a return on equity of 171.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Oracle Co. will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.91%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, EVP Maria Smith sold 6,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $1,042,800.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,076,685. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 42.80% of the company’s stock.

Oracle 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.