ZEGA Investments LLC Invests $1.26 Million in Oracle Corporation $ORCL

ZEGA Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 4,471 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,257,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 164,278,874 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $35,916,290,000 after purchasing an additional 3,353,461 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Oracle by 1.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,459,391 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $16,060,427,000 after acquiring an additional 1,252,723 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Oracle during the second quarter worth about $4,275,378,000. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 1.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 11,315,180 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,473,838,000 after acquiring an additional 147,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in shares of Oracle by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 11,182,800 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,444,896,000 after purchasing an additional 405,525 shares during the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Oracle Stock Up 3.1%

Oracle stock opened at $204.69 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $207.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $242.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28. The firm has a market cap of $588.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.65. Oracle Corporation has a 52 week low of $118.86 and a 52 week high of $345.72.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.62. The business had revenue of $16.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.19 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 70.60% and a net margin of 25.28%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.47 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Oracle Corporation will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Oracle’s payout ratio is presently 37.59%.

Oracle News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and high price targets — multiple firms are bullish on Oracle, including a recent upgrade to “strong-buy” reported via Zacks, which supports near-term buying interest. Zacks upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Jefferies reaffirms Buy and $400 target — Jefferies named ORCL a top AI-infrastructure pick and kept a $400 target, reinforcing the bullish thesis around Oracle’s AI/cloud positioning. Jefferies $400 target
• Positive Sentiment: Customer wins and new product releases — Recent contract wins (Community Memorial Hospital adopting Oracle Health EHR and Clinical AI Agent) and a new AI-driven retail supply-chain product provide concrete revenue-angle catalysts. CMH EHR win Retail supply chain
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation / performance questions — Analysts and commentators are debating whether ORCL is undervalued after roughly six-month underperformance versus the S&P; that debate creates mixed short-term sentiment until clearer earnings/RPO trends emerge. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: High debt and data-center leverage — analysts and commentators flag ~ $90–95B of debt tied to recent data-center expansion; debt-servicing risk and capital allocation concerns are pressuring sentiment and multiples. Seeking Alpha on debt
• Negative Sentiment: Michael Burry’s short / put positions — reports that Michael Burry has taken a short position and owns put options on ORCL have amplified selling pressure and elevated headline risk. That high-profile bet can attract momentum-driven flows and hurt sentiment near term. Blockonomi on Burry short Benzinga on Burry

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ORCL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Berenberg Bank upped their target price on Oracle from $202.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Oracle from $400.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on Oracle from $400.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on Oracle in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $305.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, Director Naomi O. Seligman sold 2,223 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.61, for a total transaction of $437,064.03. Following the transaction, the director owned 25,596 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,032,429.56. This represents a 7.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mark Hura sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.89, for a total value of $2,953,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 234,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,087,420.53. The trade was a 6.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 126,588 shares of company stock valued at $33,155,596. Insiders own 40.90% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Company Profile

Oracle Corporation is a multinational technology company that develops and sells database software, cloud engineered systems, enterprise software applications and related services. The company is widely known for its flagship Oracle Database and a portfolio of enterprise-grade software products that support data management, application development, analytics and middleware. Over recent years Oracle has expanded its focus to include cloud infrastructure and cloud applications, positioning itself as a provider of both platform and software-as-a-service solutions for large organizations.

Oracle’s product and service offerings include Oracle Database and the Autonomous Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM) and supply chain management (SCM) cloud applications (often grouped under Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications), middleware such as WebLogic, and developer technologies including Java and MySQL.