Highland Capital Management LLC Lowers Stake in Oracle Corporation $ORCL

Key Points

• Highland Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Oracle by 68.0% in Q4, selling 46,633 shares to hold 21,930 shares worth about $4.27 million at period end.
• Several institutions materially increased positions (e.g., Vanguard owns 174.8M shares; Jennison added 8.8M shares), with hedge funds and other institutional investors holding roughly 42.44% of the stock.
• Oracle has positive catalysts—reported $16B financing for its Michigan data center and a DoD AI partnership—but shares face pressure from OpenAI's weaker results and concerns about heavy, debt‑funded capex and execution risk.

Highland Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 68.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 21,930 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after selling 46,633 shares during the period. Highland Capital Management LLC's holdings in Oracle were worth $4,274,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ORCL. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 buying an additional 5,841,584 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Oracle by 333.7% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,238,006 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $1,473,137,000 after buying an additional 4,030,382 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in Oracle by 32.9% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 9,636,090 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $2,809,609,000 after buying an additional 2,385,556 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Oracle by 921.6% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,311,815 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $450,596,000 after buying an additional 2,085,514 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Oracle News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle was named a technology partner for classified DoD AI workloads, reinforcing its role in secure government cloud and validating its AI infrastructure strategy. Oracle’s Defense AI Win Highlights Government Cloud Role And Valuation Gap
• Positive Sentiment: Bloomberg reports the $16B financing for Oracle’s Michigan data center closed (Bank of America anchored a $14B bond sale), reducing near‑term funding uncertainty for a major AI buildout. Oracle (ORCL) Secures Financing for Data Center in Michigan
• Positive Sentiment: Project Jupiter — Oracle’s move to on‑site Bloom Energy fuel cells at its New Mexico AI campus — signals a push to control power costs and improve reliability for power‑hungry AI workloads. Oracle Project Jupiter Puts AI Power Costs And Valuation In Focus
• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush publicly called the recent pullback “noise,” recommending buying ORCL on continued AI demand, contract growth and cloud momentum — a supportive analyst view that can stabilize sentiment. Ignore the OpenAI Panic and Keep Buying Oracle Stock, Says Wedbush
• Positive Sentiment: Sector analyses continue to list Oracle among infrastructure leaders positioned to benefit from the AI rollout, supporting the long‑term growth narrative for cloud/IaaS exposure. These Companies Have the Essential Ingredients Needed to Pull Ahead of the Pack in the AI Revolution
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and commentators say ORCL could surge if large AI deals materialize (a cited $300B opportunity), but note execution and cash‑flow strain from heavy capex and debt — high upside but high execution risk. Oracle Stock Could Soar If This $300 Billion AI Deal Pays Off
• Neutral Sentiment: Several bullish pieces argue ORCL may have bottomed after the pullback, but these are opinion pieces — useful for contrarian investors but not definitive catalysts. I'm Calling A Bottom For Oracle
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Bloom Energy’s surge highlights the supplier side of Oracle’s energy strategy; positive for campus operations but indirect for ORCL’s revenue. Bloom Energy Stock (BE) Opinions on Q1 Earnings and Oracle Partnership
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that OpenAI missed revenue/target expectations triggered selling across AI and chip names and directly pressured Oracle shares as investors re‑price near‑term AI demand. What Oracle Investors Need to Know About OpenAI's Struggles
• Negative Sentiment: Premarket headlines citing OpenAI misses pushed ORCL and chip suppliers sharply lower, underscoring Oracle’s sensitivity to third‑party AI demand trends. Report Says OpenAI Misses Revenue Targets; Oracle Corporation (ORCL.US), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD.US) Fall 7% Premarket, Leading Chip Stocks Lower
• Negative Sentiment: Critical commentary contrasts Oracle’s heavy infrastructure, debt‑funded approach with competitors' software‑first AI strategies, highlighting leverage and execution risk that could cap multiples. Salesforce vs Oracle: There’s Only One Winner In the Cloud AI Push
• Negative Sentiment: Broader stories about banks trying to offload data‑center debt remind investors that sector financing stress could increase funding costs or slow projects. Banks seek to offload risk to avoid ‘choking’ on data centre debt

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $604,155.51. This trade represents a 81.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 9th. The shares were 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 owned 134,030 shares in the company, valued at $20,805,476.90. The trade was a 6.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 40.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Oracle Price Performance

Shares of ORCL opened at $180.36 on Tuesday. Oracle Corporation has a twelve month low of $134.57 and a twelve month high of $345.72. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $154.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $188.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $518.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.38, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.66.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.08. Oracle had a net margin of 25.30% and a return on equity of 62.70%. The business had revenue of $17.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.91 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.47 EPS. The company's revenue was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. Oracle has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.960-2.000 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Oracle Corporation will post 6.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. Oracle's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.91%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ORCL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $313.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a report on Monday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Oracle from $213.00 to $207.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Oracle from $240.00 to $210.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Guggenheim reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Oracle from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $230.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $259.56.

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.

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