Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $180.03, but opened at $188.39. Oracle shares last traded at $192.4360, with a volume of 14,229,307 shares changing hands.

Trending Headlines about Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle named as a managing investor in the U.S. TikTok joint venture — Oracle will host U.S. user data and provide cloud services for the new entity, removing a major regulatory overhang and creating a clear infrastructure contract opportunity. Oracle stock jumps 5% as cloud provider joins investor group to run TikTok’s U.S. business
• Positive Sentiment: Technical/order-flow bullishness: traders flagged a Power Inflow / institutional order‑flow signal that coincided with intraday buying, drawing momentum traders into the name. Oracle Shares Rise Over 2% After Key Trading Signal
• Positive Sentiment: Regulatory/utility approvals for the Michigan data center project remain in place — Michigan regulators approved power requests tied to the Oracle/OpenAI campus, supporting the company’s AI‑infrastructure roadmap. Oracle and OpenAI Win Michigan Approval to Power New Data Center
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF and sector flow context — analysts note the TikTok deal is more of an infrastructure/cloud story than a social‑media call, shifting some ETF and institutional flows toward cloud/data‑center exposures. TikTok’s US Deal Puts Oracle In Focus — Here’s Where ETFs Stand
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market lift — S&P 500 and Nasdaq gains this week helped amplify ORCL’s move as tech regained traction. S&P 500, Nasdaq Manage Weekly Wins As Oracle Lifts Tech
• Negative Sentiment: Data‑center financing and leverage risk remain a clear headwind — reports that a funding partner (Blue Owl) backed away from a $10B Michigan project and other financing questions have focused investors on Oracle’s rising debt and negative free cash flow. Funding stalls for Oracle’s Michigan datacenter as Blue Owl bows out: Financial Times
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst/market skepticism on the balance sheet and recent cloud revenue softness — commentators and some influential investors have flagged heavy debt levels and execution risk around AI buildouts, which could keep volatility elevated and prompt further downgrades. Jim Cramer on Oracle: “Their Balance Sheet’s Not That Good”

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Oracle from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Oracle from $270.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 11th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Oracle from $200.00 to $180.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Oracle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.72.

Oracle Price Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $234.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $242.06. The stock has a market cap of $552.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.66. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Oracle had a net margin of 25.28% and a return on equity of 70.60%. The company had revenue of $16.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.47 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

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 given 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.59%.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In other Oracle news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 19,758 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $5,927,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 18,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,528,700. The trade was a 51.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Naomi O. Seligman sold 2,222 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.91, for a total transaction of $641,958.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 29,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,443,394.75. This trade represents a 7.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 155,190 shares of company stock valued at $45,279,001. Corporate insiders own 40.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Oracle

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ORCL. Winnow Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Oracle in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Oracle in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Kilter Group LLC acquired a new stake in Oracle during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Oracle by 130.0% during the 3rd quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC now owns 115 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Oracle by 76.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 115 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 50 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.