Oracle Corporation $ORCL Stock: Stokes Capital Advisors LLC Cuts Holdings

Key Points

• Stokes Capital Advisors cut its Oracle position by 35.8% in the third quarter, selling 9,335 shares and retaining 16,736 shares valued at approximately $2.3 million. Institutional investors collectively own 42.44% of Oracle.
• Oracle reported quarterly revenue of $19.34 billion and adjusted EPS of $1.92, beating analyst estimates, while revenue grew 29.6% year over year. Analysts maintain a broadly positive outlook, with the stock carrying a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $251.72.
• Oracle’s cloud and AI growth prospects are supported by strong demand and a growing backlog, but investors remain concerned about debt, potential overbuilding of data-center capacity and reliance on major AI customers. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, yielding about 1.4%.

Stokes Capital Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL - Free Report) by 35.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 16,736 shares of the enterprise software provider's stock after selling 9,335 shares during the quarter. Stokes Capital Advisors LLC's holdings in Oracle were worth $2,298,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ORCL. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH bought a new stake in Oracle in the third quarter worth about $27,000. Basso Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Maseco LLP bought a new position in shares of Oracle during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Oracle in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Markowski Investments acquired a new position in shares of Oracle in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: A bullish analyst view helped support the recovery. Mizuho added Oracle to its top-picks list with a $320 price target, citing strong demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and AI services. Oracle added to Mizuho Top Picks
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continue to point to Oracle’s growing cloud backlog, recent earnings beats and strong infrastructure growth as evidence that the long-term AI opportunity remains intact despite the stock’s decline from its yearly high. Oracle cloud backlog and potential upside
• Positive Sentiment: Oracle is using trucked natural gas to keep data-center construction moving while pipeline infrastructure is delayed, including consideration of the approach for its 2.45-gigawatt New Mexico project. This could reduce schedule risk, though it may raise operating costs. Oracle trucks natural gas to AI data centers
• Neutral Sentiment: Oracle signed a virtual power-purchase agreement for Texas wind power, supporting its goal of investing in more than 1.7 gigawatts of renewable-energy projects. The agreement may improve the company’s energy profile but is unlikely to materially affect near-term earnings. Oracle Texas wind-power agreement
• Negative Sentiment: OpenAI’s reported annualized revenue of roughly $50 billion was below the previously circulated $68 billion figure. Although the difference reportedly reflects measurement and accounting rather than weaker demand, it renewed concerns about Oracle’s exposure to a small number of major AI customers. OpenAI revenue report pressures AI stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Oracle is pursuing large-scale private financing to buy AI chips have raised concerns about leverage, fixed-margin cloud contracts and the risk of overbuilding capacity. Separately, unusual options activity appeared tilted toward bearish call spreads, while Mar Vista disclosed exiting its Oracle position as the stock’s rally reduced its margin of safety. Oracle AI chip financing

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp set a $285.00 target price on shares of Oracle in a research note on Friday, September 11th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on shares of Oracle from $283.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $400.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Oracle in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $275.00 price objective (up from $235.00) on shares of Oracle in a research report on Tuesday, September 8th. Finally, HSBC reduced their price objective on Oracle from $345.00 to $316.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $251.72.

Insider Activity

In other Oracle news, Director Stephen Rusckowski purchased 25,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 29th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $139.35 per share, with a total value of $3,483,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 25,390 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,538,096.50. This represents a 6,410.26% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Michael Sicilia sold 22,562 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.59, for a total value of $3,420,173.58. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 182,929 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,730,207.11. The trade was a 10.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,075 shares of company stock worth $5,342,123. 38.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Oracle Stock Up 4.3%

ORCL stock opened at $141.56 on Friday. Oracle Corporation has a 52-week low of $114.50 and a 52-week high of $322.54. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $146.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $159.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $428.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.78.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.18. Oracle had a net margin of 26.36% and a return on equity of 48.85%. The firm had revenue of $19.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.47 EPS. The company's revenue was up 29.6% on a year-over-year basis. Oracle has set its Q2 2027 guidance at 1.850-1.930 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 8.100-8.100 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Oracle Corporation will post 6.69 EPS for the current year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. Oracle's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.35%.

Oracle Company Profile

Oracle Corporation NYSE: ORCL is a global technology company that develops enterprise software, cloud services and related hardware. Its offerings help businesses manage databases, applications, data, infrastructure and other core information-technology operations.

The company is best known for its Oracle Database, along with cloud-based infrastructure and platform services. Oracle also provides enterprise applications for functions such as finance, human resources, supply-chain management, customer experience and industry-specific operations.

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