Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Oracle (NYSE:ORCL)

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 606,335 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 77% compared to the average volume of 342,777 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Oracle in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $280.00 price objective on the stock. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Oracle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Oracle from $368.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, October 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $295.72.

Oracle Trading Down 7.0%

ORCL stock traded down $10.30 during trading on Thursday, reaching $136.37. 41,614,194 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 26,855,730. The firm has a market capitalization of $391.81 billion, a PE ratio of 25.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $191.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $235.52. Oracle has a 52-week low of $118.86 and a 52-week high of $345.72.

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

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 9th. Oracle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.59%.

Oracle News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle won new healthcare AI pilot contracts (Oracle Health Clinical AI Agent selected by multiple Canadian organizations), validating product adoption in a visible vertical. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators still point to a large backlog and rapid cloud/AI revenue growth as fundamental supports for the business, giving long-term buyers reason to hold despite the pullback. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Wall Street is recalibrating price targets: Citizens/JMP cut its target to $285 but kept a market‑outperform view, and other shops (BMO, Scotiabank) trimmed targets while preserving constructive ratings — mixed signals that can stabilize but slow recovery. Read More. • Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Oracle announced very large AI infrastructure funding plans (reports of a $45–50B capital raise and related equity offerings). Investors fear dilution (equity portion) and rising leverage, pressuring the stock. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Company is moving forward with major share/bond issuance programs (reports of a $20B common stock sale and senior notes), intensifying dilution and financing worries. That financing news is a near-term catalyst for selling. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have filed or solicited plaintiffs for securities class actions related to Oracle’s disclosures and financing — legal risk increases uncertainty and can deter buy-side interest. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market narratives highlighting Oracle’s reliance on OpenAI and related commercial concentration have increased scrutiny and selling pressure — commentators argue this risk helped accelerate the recent drop. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that banks are shopping loans tied to Oracle’s data-center financing and widespread insider selling headlines add to sentiment weakness and technical pressure. Read More.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, EVP Douglas A. Kehring sold 35,000 shares of Oracle stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.89, for a total value of $6,821,150.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 33,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,555,709.82. The trade was a 50.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Naomi O. Seligman sold 2,223 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.61, for a total transaction of $437,064.03. Following the sale, the director owned 25,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,032,429.56. This represents a 7.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 62,223 shares of company stock worth $12,136,764. 40.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kampmann Melissa S. increased its holdings in Oracle by 0.3% in the third quarter. Kampmann Melissa S. now owns 11,910 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $3,350,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 5,319 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,551,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. grew its position in shares of Oracle by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. now owns 5,281 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,485,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. raised its stake in Oracle by 3.4% during the third quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 1,127 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Finally, Avion Wealth lifted its holdings in Oracle by 16.6% in the third quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 260 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Oracle Company Profile

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.