Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Oracle (NYSE:ORCL)

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 160,947 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 79% compared to the typical daily volume of 90,070 call options.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In other Oracle news, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley sold 400,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider owned 1,097,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000,421.92. This trade represents a 26.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.10, for a total transaction of $3,211,500.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 60,722 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,000,580.20. The trade was a 19.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 440,366 shares of company stock worth $83,103,603 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 42.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Oracle

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Oracle by 2.2% in the 1st 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. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Oracle by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 38,002,902 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $6,332,803,000 after purchasing an additional 156,269 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Oracle by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,814,302 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $5,954,961,000 after purchasing an additional 619,619 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Oracle by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 20,202,421 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $3,366,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,722,037 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Oracle by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 19,741,423 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,760,048,000 after purchasing an additional 120,889 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ORCL opened at $237.39 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $666.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.70, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.39. Oracle has a one year low of $118.86 and a one year high of $237.99. The company’s fifty day moving average is $176.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $163.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.07, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 11th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.06. Oracle had a net margin of 21.68% and a return on equity of 87.34%. The business had revenue of $15.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.63 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Oracle will post 5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.84%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.08%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ORCL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $156.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Oracle has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.15.

About Oracle

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.