Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Stock Price Down 2.2% – Time to Sell?

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) traded down 2.2% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $161.52 and last traded at $168.9810. 37,001,984 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 59% from the average session volume of 23,239,434 shares. The stock had previously closed at $172.80.

Key Stories Impacting Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle unveiled the Oracle Life Sciences AI Data Platform, a generative-AI analytics product that stitches Oracle Health Real-World Data (129M+ records) with other sources — a potential revenue driver in pharma and life-sciences services. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Oracle’s OPERA Cloud was approved by IHG Hotels & Resorts as an approved property-management provider — a commercial win that supports recurring cloud revenue in hospitality. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and research notes highlight Oracle is ramping cloud CapEx toward ~$50B to build GPU/AI infrastructure — a strategic long-term bet that could boost AI revenue but increases near-term capital intensity and leverage. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Market panic over AI exposed Oracle to a sharp sell-off — coverage notes the shares are >50% off their peak as investors worry about AI demand, valuation and Oracle’s ties to OpenAI. That sentiment is a primary driver of the decline. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: An influential analyst sharply cut their price target on ORCL by >30%, increasing near-term downside risk and pressuring sentiment. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Credit-market stress: reports show Oracle’s credit-default-swap levels have surged to multi-year highs, signaling investor concern about leverage as the company funds AI infrastructure expansion. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and shareholder risk is rising: multiple investor law firms (Pomerantz, Rosen) have opened investigations / lawsuits tied to recent debt offerings and disclosures, creating potential litigation overhang and costs. Article Title Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: A recent weather-related power outage at an Oracle data center disrupted TikTok U.S. users, drawing operational scrutiny and short-term reputation risk for Oracle’s cloud reliability. Article Title

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on ORCL. HSBC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $382.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Oracle from $365.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Barclays set a $310.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on Oracle from $350.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $300.46.

Oracle Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $485.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $195.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $238.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.62. Oracle had a net margin of 25.28% and a return on equity of 70.60%. The company had revenue of $16.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.47 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 9th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Oracle’s payout ratio is presently 37.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Oracle news, CEO Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.52, for a total value of $1,925,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 144,030 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,728,655.60. This trade represents a 6.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Naomi O. Seligman sold 2,223 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 25,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,032,429.56. This trade represents a 7.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 62,223 shares of company stock worth $12,136,764. 40.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Oracle

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Oracle by 130.0% during the third quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC now owns 115 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Oracle by 76.9% in the third quarter. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 115 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. purchased a new position in Oracle in the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Winnow Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Oracle in the second quarter worth about $28,000. 42.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.