Oracle Co. (ORCL) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 10th

Oracle Co. (NYSE:ORCL) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 9th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the enterprise software provider on Thursday, January 9th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th.

Oracle has increased its dividend payment by an average of 16.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Oracle has a payout ratio of 22.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Oracle to earn $5.65 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.3%.

Oracle Price Performance

ORCL opened at $161.96 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $452.99 billion, a PE ratio of 39.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.65, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.81. Oracle has a 1 year low of $102.13 and a 1 year high of $198.31. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $178.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $160.59.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, December 9th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.12 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 133.25% and a net margin of 21.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.34 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Oracle will post 5.03 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on ORCL. Melius upgraded shares of Oracle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Oracle from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Oracle from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Oracle from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Oracle from $173.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $181.48.

Oracle Company 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.