Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Down 1.3% – What’s Next?

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) fell 1.3% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $188.90 and last traded at $193.1260. 15,459,890 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 44% from the average session volume of 27,720,881 shares. The stock had previously closed at $195.61.

Oracle News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: 24/7 Wall St. reiterated a buy view on Oracle and set a $245.34 12-month target, citing a record contracted backlog and improving cloud infrastructure economics as key drivers of upside. Oracle Price Prediction: Why $245 Is Just the Beginning
• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush-linked coverage said Oracle is building a durable position for the next phase of the AI cycle, with investors potentially underestimating its role in AI demand and infrastructure spending. Oracle builds durable position for next phase of AI cycle: Wedbush
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary continue to frame Oracle as an AI heavyweight, pointing to its legacy systems, cloud expansion, and enterprise relationships as advantages in the current AI buildout. Oracle Went From Tech Dinosaur to AI Heavyweight
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage also highlighted Oracle’s cloud expansion and defense partnerships, reinforcing the idea that the company is broadening its AI and government exposure, though this appears more like a medium-term catalyst than an immediate earnings event. Oracle (ORCL) Expands Its Agentic AI Push Through U.S. Defense Partnerships
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle’s frequent mention in bullish price-target and AI catalyst articles is helping sentiment, but the recent move appears driven more by investor enthusiasm around future growth than by a new operating update from the company itself. Be Ready: 3 Upcoming Catalysts Could Drive Oracle to Record Highs

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on ORCL. Arete Research set a $255.00 price target on Oracle and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $229.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $254.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price objective on Oracle from $225.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $261.46.

Oracle Trading Down 1.3%

The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.66. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $162.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $182.85. The firm has a market cap of $555.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.55.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $17.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.91 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 62.70% and a net margin of 25.30%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.47 EPS. Oracle has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.960-2.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Oracle’s payout ratio is currently 35.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Oracle

In other news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.19, for a total transaction of $2,642,850.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 3,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $604,155.51. The trade was a 81.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 40.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Oracle

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ORCL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Oracle in the 4th quarter valued at $4,336,031,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Oracle by 2,062.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 9,227,252 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,595,072,000 after acquiring an additional 8,800,546 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Oracle by 29.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,137,126 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $5,874,070,000 after acquiring an additional 6,826,299 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Oracle by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 174,802,084 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $34,070,674,000 after acquiring an additional 5,841,584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its position in Oracle by 882.3% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 4,991,010 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $972,798,000 after acquiring an additional 4,482,934 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

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.