Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) Receives $57.42 Average Target Price from Analysts

09 Dec 2019, 11:09 by Doug Wharley

Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirty ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seventeen have assigned a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $57.42.

Several equities analysts recently commented on ORCL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $56.00 price objective on Oracle and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. ValuEngine downgraded Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $66.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $61.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a research report on Friday, November 1st.

ORCL traded up $0.24 during trading on Friday, hitting $55.07. 2,358,442 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,199,624. The firm has a market cap of $179.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $55.52 and its 200 day moving average is $55.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 2.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.67. Oracle has a one year low of $42.40 and a one year high of $60.50.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.09. Oracle had a net margin of 27.71% and a return on equity of 48.85%. The business had revenue of $9.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Oracle will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, September 11th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the enterprise software provider to repurchase up to 8.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

In other news, Director Jeffrey Berg sold 9,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.59, for a total transaction of $540,434.50. Also, Director Hector Garcia-Molina sold 4,643 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.42, for a total transaction of $261,958.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 38,562 shares in the company, valued at $2,175,668.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 76,479 shares of company stock valued at $4,223,049 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 36.60% of the company’s stock.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 1 North Wealth Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Winthrop Partners WNY LLC acquired a new stake in Oracle in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. C J Advisory Inc purchased a new position in Oracle in the third quarter worth $31,000. Next Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Oracle in the second quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Shamrock Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Oracle by 577.0% in the second quarter. Shamrock Asset Management LLC now owns 677 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 577 shares during the last quarter. 51.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Oracle

Oracle Corporation develops, manufactures, markets, sells, hosts, and supports application, platform, and infrastructure solutions for information technology (IT) environments worldwide. The company provides services in three primary layers of the cloud: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service.