Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Stock Price Down 5.7% – Should You Sell?

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s stock price fell 5.7% during trading on Thursday. The company traded as low as $134.66 and last traded at $135.3460. 41,345,016 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 41% from the average session volume of 29,414,020 shares. The stock had previously closed at $143.56.

Oracle News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: A bullish analyst view helped support the recovery. Mizuho added Oracle to its top-picks list with a $320 price target, citing strong demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and AI services. Oracle added to Mizuho Top Picks
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continue to point to Oracle’s growing cloud backlog, recent earnings beats and strong infrastructure growth as evidence that the long-term AI opportunity remains intact despite the stock’s decline from its yearly high. Oracle cloud backlog and potential upside
• Positive Sentiment: Oracle is using trucked natural gas to keep data-center construction moving while pipeline infrastructure is delayed, including consideration of the approach for its 2.45-gigawatt New Mexico project. This could reduce schedule risk, though it may raise operating costs. Oracle trucks natural gas to AI data centers
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle signed a virtual power-purchase agreement for Texas wind power, supporting its goal of investing in more than 1.7 gigawatts of renewable-energy projects. The agreement may improve the company’s energy profile but is unlikely to materially affect near-term earnings. Oracle Texas wind-power agreement
• Negative Sentiment: OpenAI’s reported annualized revenue of roughly $50 billion was below the previously circulated $68 billion figure. Although the difference reportedly reflects measurement and accounting rather than weaker demand, it renewed concerns about Oracle’s exposure to a small number of major AI customers. OpenAI revenue report pressures AI stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Oracle is pursuing large-scale private financing to buy AI chips have raised concerns about leverage, fixed-margin cloud contracts and the risk of overbuilding capacity. Separately, unusual options activity appeared tilted toward bearish call spreads, while Mar Vista disclosed exiting its Oracle position as the stock’s rally reduced its margin of safety. Oracle AI chip financing

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ORCL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Oracle in a research note on Friday, September 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Oracle from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 11th. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a research report on Monday, September 14th. HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Oracle from $345.00 to $316.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Oracle from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $251.72.

Oracle Trading Up 4.3%

The firm has a market cap of $428.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $146.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $159.03.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.18. Oracle had a net margin of 26.36% and a return on equity of 48.85%. The company had revenue of $19.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.47 EPS. Oracle’s quarterly revenue was up 29.6% on a year-over-year basis. Oracle has set its Q2 2027 guidance at 1.850-1.930 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 8.100-8.100 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Oracle Corporation will post 6.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. Oracle’s payout ratio is 31.35%.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In related news, EVP Maria Smith sold 2,631 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.70, for a total transaction of $399,122.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 64,357 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,762,956.90. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephen Rusckowski bought 25,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $139.35 per share, with a total value of $3,483,750.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 25,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,538,096.50. This represents a 6,410.26% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,075 shares of company stock valued at $5,342,123. Corporate insiders own 38.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Oracle

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ORCL. Sacks & Associates LLC acquired a new position in shares of Oracle during the third quarter valued at about $435,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Oracle by 307.5% in the third quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC now owns 599 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Oracle by 3.5% in the third quarter. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,385 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the period. Friday Financial purchased a new stake in Oracle during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Finally, Valley Wealth Managers Inc. increased its position in shares of Oracle by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 147,787 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $20,291,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281 shares during the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Oracle Company Profile

Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) is a global technology company that develops enterprise software, cloud services and related hardware. Its offerings help businesses manage databases, applications, data, infrastructure and other core information-technology operations.

The company is best known for its Oracle Database, along with cloud-based infrastructure and platform services. Oracle also provides enterprise applications for functions such as finance, human resources, supply-chain management, customer experience and industry-specific operations.