KeyCorp Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Oracle Corporation (ORCL)

KeyCorp restated their buy rating on shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, July 18th. They currently have a $61.00 price target on the enterprise software provider’s stock.

“We focused on Oracle’s cloud transition, and how moving to the cloud can generate 3x the revenue per customer, as well as Oracle’s opportunity in the SaaS market. Oracle’s opportunity in cloud and SaaS, and valuation, have been the main area of investor push-back since our upgrade. As Oracle continues to execute on its cloud transition, we believe multiple expansion can continue. Key Investment Points Oracle on average could see 3x the revenue from a customer who moves its workload from on-premise to the cloud. Transitions at Autodesk and Adobe, showed lifetime customer value driven from the cloud is much higher than from on-premise. As Oracle moves its customers to the cloud, it should gain a similar benefit. For the customer, migrating to the cloud can lead to significant overall cost savings, based on labor and hardware costs needed to manage on-premise solutions.”,” the firm’s analyst wrote.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. UBS AG restated a buy rating and set a $52.00 price target (up from $48.00) on shares of Oracle Corporation in a research report on Thursday, June 22nd. They noted that the move was a valuation call. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Oracle Corporation from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. Wedbush upgraded Oracle Corporation from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. Jefferies Group LLC reiterated a buy rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Oracle Corporation in a research note on Friday, May 19th. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) restated a buy rating and issued a $56.00 price target (up previously from $49.00) on shares of Oracle Corporation in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and thirty-one have given a buy rating to the company. The company presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $50.70.

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) traded down 0.30% during trading on Tuesday, reaching $50.30. 8,996,435 shares of the company traded hands. The company’s 50-day moving average is $49.06 and its 200 day moving average is $44.71. The company has a market cap of $208.08 billion, a PE ratio of 22.76 and a beta of 1.07. Oracle Corporation has a 12 month low of $37.62 and a 12 month high of $51.85.

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 21st. The enterprise software provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $10.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.45 billion. Oracle Corporation had a return on equity of 20.90% and a net margin of 24.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Oracle Corporation will post $2.96 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 19th will be given a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 17th. Oracle Corporation’s payout ratio is presently 34.55%.

In other news, EVP W Corey West sold 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.39, for a total transaction of $7,708,500.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 177,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,146,803.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Safra Catz sold 394,081 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.01, for a total value of $17,737,585.81. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 855,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,525,904.41. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,211,581 shares of company stock worth $109,284,973. Corporate insiders own 29.00% of the company’s stock.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ORCL. Marietta Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Oracle Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at $284,000. Flinton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Oracle Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,329,000. Cpcm LLC bought a new position in shares of Oracle Corporation during the fourth quarter worth about $993,000. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Oracle Corporation by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC now owns 5,811 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the period. Finally, Folger Hill Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Oracle Corporation during the fourth quarter worth about $900,000. Institutional investors own 58.65% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Corporation Company Profile

Oracle Corporation (Oracle) provides products and services that address all aspects of corporate information technology (IT) environments, including application, platform and infrastructure. The Company’s businesses include cloud and on-premise software, hardware and services. Its cloud and on-premise software business consists of three segments, including cloud software and on-premise software, which includes Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings, cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software license updates and product support.