Oracle Corporation $ORCL Shares Purchased by South Dakota Investment Council

Key Points

• South Dakota Investment Council increased its Oracle stake by 34.6% in the first quarter, acquiring 19,000 additional shares for a total holding valued at approximately $10.9 million. Several other institutional investors also expanded their positions, with institutions and hedge funds owning 42.44% of the stock.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish: Oracle has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.03, with several firms recently raising their targets to as high as $285.
• Oracle beat quarterly estimates with $2.11 in earnings per share and $19.18 billion in revenue, up 20.6% year over year, and paid a quarterly dividend of $0.50. However, rising debt costs and concerns over heavy AI infrastructure spending and potential margin pressure remain key risks.

South Dakota Investment Council raised its stake in shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 34.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 73,869 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after acquiring an additional 19,000 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council's holdings in Oracle were worth $10,867,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. DDD Partners LLC bought a new position in Oracle during the fourth quarter worth $1,677,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in Oracle by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 76,590 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock valued at $14,928,000 after purchasing an additional 3,100 shares during the last quarter. Planning Center Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 142.2% during the fourth quarter. Planning Center Inc. now owns 6,376 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $1,243,000 after purchasing an additional 3,743 shares during the period. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Oracle by 15.4% during the fourth quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 42,616 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $8,306,000 after purchasing an additional 5,692 shares during the period. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Oracle by 870.0% in the 4th quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 671,452 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $128,012,000 after buying an additional 602,230 shares during the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ORCL. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Oracle from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Oracle from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Oracle from $235.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating on shares of Oracle in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Oracle currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $265.03.

Oracle Price Performance

NYSE ORCL opened at $117.77 on Thursday. Oracle Corporation has a 52 week low of $114.50 and a 52 week high of $345.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market cap of $339.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $166.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $165.16.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.96 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $19.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $19.10 billion. Oracle had a return on equity of 58.62% and a net margin of 25.37%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 20.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.70 earnings per share. Oracle has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.720-1.760 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 8.050-8.050 EPS. Analysts forecast that Oracle Corporation will post 6.47 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Oracle's dividend payout ratio is presently 34.31%.

Key Stories Impacting Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria argues that the market is assigning essentially no value to Oracle’s reported $630 billion AI backlog. Growing confidence in OpenAI’s long-term computing commitments could eventually improve investor perceptions of Oracle’s cloud infrastructure opportunity. Wall Street Is Valuing Oracle's $630B AI Backlog at Zero
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts and opinion pieces see significant long-term upside, citing Oracle’s record cloud growth, AI contracts and a roughly $7 billion Pentagon agreement. However, these bullish views have not yet overcome concerns about valuation and execution. A $7 Billion Reason to Buy Oracle Stock Now
• Neutral Sentiment: Founder Larry Ellison has personally guaranteed approximately $40.4 billion of equity financing for Paramount Skydance’s proposed Warner Bros. Discovery transaction. The guarantee is personal rather than an Oracle obligation, but his 40.6% ownership makes the deal relevant to shareholders because of potential concentration and governance concerns. Larry Ellison and the Media Deal
• Negative Sentiment: Oracle’s credit-default-swap costs have risen to about 200 basis points, substantially above those of several other AI-linked issuers. Investors are increasingly worried that heavy borrowing for data centers could compress margins, raise financing costs and delay returns on AI spending. Oracle Stock and Default Insurance
• Negative Sentiment: Technology companies have issued roughly $194 billion of bonds for AI investment in 2026 through early July. Weaker demand and rising yields are fueling an industry-wide “AI debt fatigue” trade, with Oracle viewed as especially exposed because of its substantial infrastructure commitments and leverage.
• Negative Sentiment: Bearish commentary highlights the possibility of further selling if AI capital spending slows, OpenAI-related credit concerns worsen or Oracle’s expected margin compression becomes more pronounced. One investment firm also trimmed its Oracle position after strong cloud gains, reinforcing the near-term risk-off sentiment.

Insider Activity

In other news, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley sold 400,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.16, for a total transaction of $63,664,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 400,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $63,664,000. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 40.90% of the company's stock.

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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