Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Trading Down 2.5% on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) were down 2.5% on Thursday after Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on the stock from $275.00 to $220.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Oracle traded as low as $158.61 and last traded at $159.0920. Approximately 36,862,468 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 29% from the average daily volume of 28,618,615 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.12.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on ORCL. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Oracle from $220.00 to $215.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Oracle from $400.00 to $320.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Oracle from $350.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 6th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on Oracle from $350.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price target on Oracle from $368.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In related news, CEO Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 10,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.23, for a total transaction of $1,552,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 134,030 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,805,476.90. The trade was a 6.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Naomi O. Seligman sold 2,223 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.61, for a total value of $437,064.03. Following the sale, the director directly owned 25,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,032,429.56. This represents a 7.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 72,223 shares of company stock worth $13,689,064. 40.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 beat and upgraded long‑term guidance — Oracle reported $17.19B revenue and $1.79 non‑GAAP EPS, cloud and AI infrastructure grew sharply and management lifted FY2027 revenue guidance, a core reason shares ran higher after the print. Q3 results
• Positive Sentiment: Large contracted backlog and TikTok stake disclosed — Oracle disclosed a $553B remaining performance obligation (backlog) and filings show its ~15% stake in the U.S. TikTok JV is worth roughly $2.0–$2.2B, supporting the company’s AI revenue runway and asset value. TikTok stake value
• Neutral Sentiment: Mixed analyst moves — Wall Street reactions are mixed: several firms raised ratings/targets and upgraded after the beat (JPMorgan, Citigroup, Oppenheimer among positives) while others trimmed targets or cut upside assumptions (Baird, Stifel, Piper Sandler). That creates offsetting flows rather than a one‑way catalyst. Analyst note (example)
• Neutral Sentiment: Non‑related ticker note — News that “ORCL” (Oracle Commodity Holding Corp., TSXV) plans a small private placement circulated today; this is a different company and ticker collision can create short‑term noise for screens and newsfeeds. Private placement (different ORCL)
• Negative Sentiment: Class‑action and investor‑rights suits piling up — Multiple firms have filed or are soliciting lead plaintiffs over alleged disclosures in the June–Dec 2025 period; ongoing litigation risk can pressure the stock and deter some buyers. Class action notice
• Negative Sentiment: Restructuring reserve and cash‑flow/CapEx concerns — Oracle allocated an extra ~$500M for restructuring costs and the company is still in the middle of a capital‑intensive AI data‑center buildout; articles highlighting negative free cash flow and debt/capex risk are weighing on sentiment. Restructuring reserve

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC purchased a new stake in Oracle in the 4th quarter worth $369,000. Meadowbrook Advisors Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Oracle in the fourth quarter worth about $1,091,000. DUTCH ASSET Corp bought a new stake in Oracle during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,515,000. Green Ridge Wealth Planning LLC purchased a new position in Oracle in the 4th quarter worth approximately $750,000. Finally, PeakShares LLC bought a new position in Oracle in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,265,000. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Oracle Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $167.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $219.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $457.09 billion, a PE ratio of 28.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.66.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $17.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.91 billion. Oracle had a net margin of 25.30% and a return on equity of 68.09%. Oracle’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.47 EPS. Oracle has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.960-2.000 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 5 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.91%.

About Oracle

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.