Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Down 2.2% – Should You Sell?

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s stock price traded down 2.2% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $161.52 and last traded at $168.9810. 37,001,984 shares changed 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.

More Oracle News

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst bullish call — An analyst dubbed Oracle a “decade stock” that could more than double over time, arguing current weakness (debt and AI worries) may create a buying opportunity for long-term investors. Oracle is a “Decade Stock,” Could More Than Double, Says Analyst
• Positive Sentiment: New product launch in healthcare — Oracle unveiled the Life Sciences AI Data Platform, expanding its generative-AI offerings into pharma/clinical data (129M+ de-identified records), which could drive enterprise revenue and higher-margin services. Oracle Life Sciences AI Data Platform
• Positive Sentiment: Customer win in hospitality — IHG approved Oracle OPERA Cloud as a property-management provider across multiple regions, a commercial endorsement that supports recurring cloud bookings and cross-sell opportunities. Oracle Approved by IHG Hotels & Resorts
• Positive Sentiment: Shareholder returns track record — A Forbes piece highlights Oracle’s large capital return program (~$158B returned), a structural positive for investors who value buybacks and dividends during pullbacks. How Oracle Stock Returned $158B To Shareholders
• Neutral Sentiment: Options-service commentary — Schaeffer’s Weekend Trader highlighted ORCL as a “popular cloud stock pick for 2026” and provided a specific bearish options trade to subscribers — indicates active derivatives strategies around the name. Popular Cloud Stock Pick for 2026 Option Bears
• Neutral Sentiment: Trending/market context — Coverage notes ORCL is trending amid a broader tech sell-off; some press attributes intraday moves more to sector rotation than company-specific guidance. Oracle Stock Is Trending Thursday: What’s Going On?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor lawsuits and bondholder investigations — Rosen Law (senior notes), Pomerantz, and Girard Sharp have issued notices/investigations tied to Oracle’s 2024-2025 offerings and the 2025 AI buildout deal, increasing legal risk and potential financial exposure. ROSEN, GLOBAL INVESTOR COUNSEL, Encourages Oracle Corporation Investors
• Negative Sentiment: AI-related sell-off driving sharp declines — Multiple outlets report the stock has tumbled more than 50% from its peak as investors punish OpenAI exposure, AI buildout costs and leverage concerns; this narrative is the primary immediate driver of price weakness. Oracle Stock Drops by More Than Half Amid AI Concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Market analysis of the decline — Reports from The Motley Fool and Zacks attribute recent slump to broad AI sell-off and investor unease over debt/OpenAI ties, reinforcing downside momentum. Why Oracle Stock Slumped on Thursday

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on ORCL shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Oracle from $350.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. DA Davidson reduced their price target on Oracle from $200.00 to $180.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Oracle from $270.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of Oracle from $208.00 to $331.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $300.46.

Oracle Stock Down 2.6%

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $194.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $237.42. The company has a market cap of $473.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.62. Oracle had a return on equity of 70.60% and a net margin of 25.28%.The company had revenue of $16.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Oracle Corporation will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Douglas A. Kehring sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.89, for a total transaction of $6,821,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 33,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,555,709.82. This trade represents a 50.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Mark Hura sold 15,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.89, for a total transaction of $2,953,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 234,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,087,420.53. The trade was a 6.02% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 62,223 shares of company stock worth $12,136,764 over the last three months. 40.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Oracle by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 5,093,200 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $1,113,526,000 after acquiring an additional 360,000 shares during the period. Patton Fund Management Inc. grew its holdings in Oracle by 626.1% in the 3rd quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. now owns 11,537 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $3,245,000 after buying an additional 9,948 shares in the last quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC increased its position in Oracle by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 3,817 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $835,000 after acquiring an additional 321 shares during the period. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Oracle by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 32,937 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $7,201,000 after acquiring an additional 1,515 shares during the period. Finally, Cascade Investment Group Inc. bought a new stake in Oracle during the 2nd quarter valued at $239,000. Hedge funds and other 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.