Key Points
- Insider sale: EVP Douglas Kehring sold 35,000 shares on Jan. 15 at an average price of $194.89 for a total of $6.82M, cutting his stake by about 50.99% to 33,638 shares, as disclosed on an SEC Form 4.
- Fundamentals and shareholder payback: Oracle beat quarterly EPS estimates ($2.26 vs. $1.64) with revenue up 14.2% year-over-year and announced a $0.50 quarterly dividend ($2.00 annual, ~1.0% yield).
- Risks and market view: The company faces legal and debt-market concerns tied to its AI expansion and has attracted activist/short interest, while analysts remain mixed—MarketBeat’s average target is about $305.50.
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) EVP Douglas Kehring sold 35,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were 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 owned 33,638 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,555,709.82. This represents a 50.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.
Oracle Trading Up 0.7%
NYSE ORCL opened at $191.27 on Friday. Oracle Corporation has a one year low of $118.86 and a one year high of $345.72. 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 firm has a market cap of $549.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.65. The stock's 50-day moving average is $203.24 and its 200-day moving average is $241.30.
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 25.28% and a return on equity of 70.60%. The firm had revenue of $16.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.47 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Oracle Corporation will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Oracle Announces Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Oracle's payout ratio is presently 37.59%.
Key Stories Impacting Oracle
Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Oracle’s reported RPO (remaining performance obligations) surge gives multi-year revenue visibility and supports the company’s AI/cloud revenue outlook, bolstering the long-term growth case. RPO expansion article
- Neutral Sentiment: EVP Douglas Kehring sold 35,000 shares (~$6.8M) at about $194.89; while large insider sales can raise questions, the filing shows he still holds shares—context matters (planned diversification vs. signal). SEC Form 4
- Negative Sentiment: Multiple lawsuits and investor notices have emerged alleging losses tied to Oracle’s AI buildout and bond issuance; class-action and bondholder suits increase legal risk and could pressure sentiment and costs. Bondholder suit
- Negative Sentiment: Debt-market concerns: analysts and reports flag large planned debt raises to fund AI/hyperscale expansion, and bond-market stress has been reported — this raises refinancing and credit-risk questions for investors. Debt risk article
- Negative Sentiment: High-profile short activity and activist/hedge attention: reports note Michael Burry has taken a bearish position, which can amplify downside pressure and volatility. Burry short article
- Negative Sentiment: Operational/headquarters execution concerns: reports say Oracle is struggling to staff its new Nashville “world HQ,” which fuels investor concern around execution and the company’s ability to scale operations. HQ hiring troubles
- Neutral Sentiment: Competitive context: AWS is reaccelerating and pulling ahead in scale and AI infrastructure, a reminder investors should weigh ORCL’s execution vs. larger cloud peers. Cloud comparison
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ORCL shares. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Oracle in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. They set an "overweight" rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $342.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Oracle from $350.00 to $385.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Oracle from $250.00 to $195.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $305.50.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Oracle
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Oracle
Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of Oracle by 7.6% during the second quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 5,093,200 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $1,113,526,000 after purchasing an additional 360,000 shares in the last quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 626.1% during the 3rd quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. now owns 11,537 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $3,245,000 after buying an additional 9,948 shares in the last quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 worth $835,000 after buying an additional 321 shares during the period. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Oracle by 4.8% in the second quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 32,937 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $7,201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,515 shares during the period. Finally, Cascade Investment Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Oracle in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $239,000. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.
About Oracle
(
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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.
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