Oracle Corporation $ORCL Stock Position Decreased by Franklin Resources Inc.

Key Points

• Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its Oracle stake by 13.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 1.29 million shares and leaving it with about 7.96 million shares worth roughly $1.55 billion.
• Oracle’s latest quarter showed strong revenue and earnings growth, with EPS of $1.79 beating estimates and revenue of $17.19 billion rising 21.7% year over year.
• Despite bullish analyst commentary and cloud/AI momentum, investors remain cautious about heavy AI spending, capacity constraints, and execution risk heading into the company’s next earnings report.

Franklin Resources Inc. cut its position in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 13.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,957,274 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after selling 1,289,314 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.28% of Oracle worth $1,550,952,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 valued at $34,070,674,000 after buying an additional 5,841,584 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Oracle by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 37,734,944 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $7,328,754,000 after acquiring an additional 665,374 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Oracle by 29.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,137,126 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $5,874,070,000 after acquiring an additional 6,826,299 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Oracle during the 4th quarter valued at $4,336,031,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Oracle by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 12,866,075 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock worth $2,507,727,000 after purchasing an additional 927,618 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Key Oracle News

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle still has strong momentum in cloud and AI infrastructure, with recent articles highlighting robust demand, a very large backlog, and bullish analyst targets that imply significant upside if execution stays on track. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: BTIG reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $400 price target, signaling confidence that Oracle can continue benefiting from AI demand and cloud growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Oracle’s recent Q3 revenue growth of about 22% year over year supports the view that the company is still expanding quickly despite the pullback in the shares. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle has several articles pointing to the upcoming fiscal Q4 report as a key catalyst, with investors watching revenue, cloud growth, remaining performance obligations, and guidance for signs of whether the AI buildout is paying off. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle remains a heavily discussed AI beneficiary, but some commentary frames the stock as having already rallied sharply this year, which may leave the setup vulnerable to profit-taking before results. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: RBC Capital Markets said Oracle faces questions about the pace of its AI data center buildout and whether it can overcome capacity constraints, reinforcing concerns that growth could be limited by execution. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also worried about the scale of Oracle’s AI spending, with reports suggesting capex could rise dramatically and potentially pressure free cash flow, leverage, and the company’s credit profile. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Recent coverage also notes broader tech-sector weakness and insider selling, adding to the cautious tone around ORCL heading into earnings. Article Title

Oracle Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of ORCL stock opened at $213.41 on Monday. Oracle Corporation has a 1 year low of $134.57 and a 1 year high of $345.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.66. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $179.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $613.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.31, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.65.

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

Oracle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Oracle's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.91%.

Insider Activity at Oracle

In related news, EVP Stuart Levey sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.19, for a total value of $2,642,850.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 3,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $604,155.51. This trade represents a 81.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 40.90% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ORCL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Oracle from $225.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Oracle from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Oracle in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $200.00 price target on the stock. Stephens reissued an "equal weight" rating and issued a $254.00 price target on shares of Oracle in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Oracle from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $269.71.

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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