Legal & General Group Plc Sells 367,740 Shares of Oracle Corporation $ORCL

Key Points

• Legal & General reduced its Oracle stake by 3.6%, selling 367,740 shares but retaining 9.90 million shares valued at approximately $1.45 billion. Institutional investors collectively own 42.44% of Oracle.
• Oracle reported strong quarterly results, with revenue rising 20.6% year over year to $19.18 billion and EPS of $2.11, beating estimates. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating with an average price target of $263.97.
• Despite cloud and AI growth prospects, investors face risks from Oracle’s heavy debt load, substantial AI infrastructure commitments, customer concentration and insider selling. The stock recently traded near $142.44, well below its 12-month high of $345.72.

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 3.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,897,265 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after selling 367,740 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.34% of Oracle worth $1,450,444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ORCL. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Oracle by 25.9% during the 2nd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 925,049 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $137,336,000 after buying an additional 190,358 shares during the last quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC grew its position in Oracle by 0.7% in the second quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,815 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $1,731,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Veratis Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Oracle during the second quarter worth about $696,000. Fiduciary Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of Oracle in the second quarter worth about $201,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Oracle by 384.9% in the second quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 257 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Oracle News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle’s cloud expansion is attracting investor interest, with analysts highlighting its potentially lower-cost infrastructure and suitability for artificial-intelligence workloads. The company’s reported $638 billion remaining performance obligation also points to substantial contracted future revenue, although execution remains important. Can Oracle Cloud Expansion Reshape Its S&P 500 Role?
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary remains constructive on Oracle’s accelerating revenue growth and potential to benefit from long-term AI infrastructure spending. The company’s latest reported quarter showed revenue growth of more than 20% year over year, with earnings and sales exceeding consensus estimates. Powerful Growth, Multiple Endorsements Bode Well for Oracle Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views are widely dispersed. Recent price targets range from $164 to $400, with a reported six-month median of $247.50, suggesting significant upside in bullish scenarios but also substantial uncertainty about valuation and execution.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that Oracle is committing heavily to AI data-center capacity while taking on substantial debt. The company’s dependence on a small number of large AI customers, including OpenAI, increases the risk that contract changes or slower demand could affect growth expectations. Oracle vs. Amazon: Which Is the Better AI Cloud Stock?
• Negative Sentiment: Oracle has fallen sharply from last year’s peak, and investor commentary continues to question whether the stock’s decline reflects an attractive valuation or unresolved balance-sheet and customer-concentration risks. All 12 reported open-market insider transactions over the past six months were sales, adding another bearish signal. Don’t Be Fooled, Says Investor About Oracle Stock

Oracle Stock Performance

NYSE ORCL opened at $142.44 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $410.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.43, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.72. Oracle Corporation has a twelve month low of $114.50 and a twelve month high of $345.72. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $143.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $160.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, June 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.15. Oracle had a return on equity of 58.62% and a net margin of 25.37%.The firm had revenue of $19.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.70 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 20.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Oracle has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.720-1.760 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 8.050-8.050 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Oracle Corporation will post 6.49 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 10th. Oracle's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.31%.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In related news, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley sold 400,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.16, for a total value of $63,664,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 400,000 shares in the company, valued at $63,664,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 40.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ORCL. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $245.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a report on Monday, June 8th. CLSA started coverage on Oracle in a report on Monday, July 20th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $145.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Oracle from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Moffett Nathanson set a $325.00 price target on Oracle in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and set a $284.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $263.97.

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.

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