Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Down 3.8% – Here’s Why

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) dropped 3.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $148.80 and last traded at $150.32. Approximately 21,778,560 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 26% from the average daily volume of 29,476,678 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.22.

Oracle News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AWS partnership expands Oracle’s cloud opportunity. Oracle AI Database@AWS is now available in 22 AWS regions, while new Exadata services offer pay-as-you-go access to Oracle’s database technology. The expanded collaboration could accelerate enterprise migrations, increase Oracle Cloud adoption and support AI-related workload growth. Oracle and AWS collaboration
• Positive Sentiment: Quantum computing adds another long-term growth narrative. Oracle’s partnership with Quantinuum will bring hybrid quantum-computing capabilities to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, potentially strengthening its position in advanced AI and cloud services. Quantinuum Oracle cloud deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentators view Oracle as potentially undervalued after its sell-off, while technical coverage points to support near the 50-day moving average. However, these signals have yet to overcome broader concerns about the company’s financing needs.
• Negative Sentiment: Debt and credit risks are the main overhang. Reports cite a credit downgrade, higher bond-insurance costs and a surge in borrowing tied to AI data-center investment. Investors are increasingly focused on whether future cloud growth will generate enough cash flow to offset interest and infrastructure expenses. Oracle debt and credit concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Potential layoffs reinforce concerns about cost pressure. Reports that Oracle may announce another round of job cuts before September suggest management is seeking savings as AI infrastructure spending strains cash flow. Oracle potential layoffs
• Negative Sentiment: Investor Michael Burry reportedly increased his short position in Oracle, arguing that excess AI-compute capacity could emerge by 2028. The high-profile bearish call adds to fears that AI-related spending and valuations may be ahead of sustainable demand. Michael Burry Oracle short position

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ORCL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Oracle from $319.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a report on Monday, June 8th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Wedbush dropped their target price on shares of Oracle from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Oracle from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $263.97.

Oracle Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $432.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $151.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $161.68.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.15. Oracle had a return on equity of 58.62% and a net margin of 25.37%.The business had revenue of $19.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 EPS. Oracle’s quarterly revenue was up 20.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Oracle has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.720-1.760 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 8.050-8.050 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Oracle Corporation will post 6.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 10th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is 34.31%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley sold 400,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.16, for a total transaction of $63,664,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 400,000 shares in the company, valued at $63,664,000. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 40.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Oracle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 189.3% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 153,580 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $25,593,000 after buying an additional 100,494 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Oracle by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,418 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $903,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Oracle by 21.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,348 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $951,000 after acquiring an additional 768 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its stake in shares of Oracle by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 15,038 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,288,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schnieders Capital Management LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 19.2% in the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 52,856 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $11,556,000 after purchasing an additional 8,530 shares during the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.