Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Trading Down 1.6% Following Analyst Downgrade

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s stock price traded down 1.6% during mid-day trading on Friday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $213.00 to $207.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Oracle traded as low as $168.80 and last traded at $173.5060. 33,019,970 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 16% from the average session volume of 28,514,039 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.28.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Oracle from $300.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Oracle from $240.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Melius Research set a $160.00 price objective on Oracle in a research note on Monday, February 9th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Oracle from $205.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Oracle from $400.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $259.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Oracle news, CEO Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 134,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,805,476.90. The trade was a 6.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $2,642,850.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 3,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $604,155.51. This represents a 81.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 40.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Oracle News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush initiated coverage with an Outperform and a $225 price target, calling Oracle a “foundational” AI infrastructure play—this pushed pre-market buying and underpins longer‑term upside expectations tied to Oracle’s AI backlog. Wedbush crowns Oracle with $225 target
• Positive Sentiment: Oracle expanded its Google Cloud partnership with an Oracle AI Database Agent for Gemini Enterprise, which supports multicloud AI workflows and helps monetize Oracle’s core database franchise in AI use cases. Oracle and Google Cloud link AI to keep enterprise data on Oracle
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail / strategy pieces continue to label ORCL as a relatively stable enterprise software pick (e.g., “safe stock for beginners”), keeping conservative investor interest alive but with limited immediate price impact. Oracle: A Safe Stock for Beginners?
• Negative Sentiment: Reports said Oracle canceled a large Super Micro Computer order for 300–400 Nvidia GB300 racks (an estimated $1.1–$1.4B deal). That execution uncertainty hit sentiment and weighed on both ORCL and supplier SMCI. Oracle stock falls 3%: why this analyst still sees upside
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage flagged mounting concern over Oracle’s fast‑ramped AI data‑center spending and related financing strain — a wider market worry about AI capex that can re-rate multiples if margins/returns don’t materialize. Why Oracle’s AI spending spree has Wall Street on edge
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley trimmed its price target and put ORCL at Equal Weight, and several outlets noted recent share declines — small analyst/target moves add to near‑term selling pressure even if some firms remain constructive. ORCL price target and analyst notes

Institutional Trading of Oracle

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ORCL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Oracle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,336,031,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Oracle by 2,062.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 9,227,252 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $2,595,072,000 after purchasing an additional 8,800,546 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Oracle by 29.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,137,126 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $5,874,070,000 after purchasing an additional 6,826,299 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Oracle by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 174,802,084 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $34,070,674,000 after purchasing an additional 5,841,584 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in Oracle by 882.3% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 4,991,010 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $972,798,000 after purchasing an additional 4,482,934 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Oracle Price Performance

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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $153.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $499.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.60.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $17.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.91 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 62.70% and a net margin of 25.30%.Oracle’s quarterly revenue was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.47 earnings per share. Oracle has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.960-2.000 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 6.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.