Investors Buy High Volume of Oracle Put Options (NYSE:ORCL)

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 606,335 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 77% compared to the average daily volume of 342,777 put options.

Insider Transactions at Oracle

In other news, Director Naomi O. Seligman sold 2,223 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.61, for a total value of $437,064.03. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 25,596 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,032,429.56. The trade was a 7.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clayton M. Magouyrk sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.52, for a total transaction of $1,925,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 144,030 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,728,655.60. This represents a 6.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 62,223 shares of company stock worth $12,136,764 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 40.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ORCL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Oracle during the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,275,378,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Oracle by 2,062.4% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 9,227,252 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $2,595,072,000 after acquiring an additional 8,800,546 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Oracle by 3.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 5,841,584 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Oracle by 333.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 4,030,382 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Oracle by 42.1% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,839,166 shares of the enterprise software provider’s stock valued at $1,932,507,000 after acquiring an additional 2,619,722 shares in the last quarter. 42.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Oracle

Here are the key news stories impacting Oracle this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Record bond sale eases financing risk — Oracle’s large bond issuance has calmed credit markets and could make it easier for tech peers to raise money for AI data centers, reducing near-term liquidity concerns. Why Oracle’s Record Bond Sale Clears the Way for More AI Debt
• Positive Sentiment: BofA says a key risk was defused — Bank of America argued Oracle addressed a major 2026 risk, which supports the case that the company can execute its AI infrastructure plans if markets accept the financing strategy. Oracle defused ‘the key risk going into 2026,’ BofA argues, but the market isn’t buying it
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst target changes are mixed — Citizens Jmp cut its target to $285 but kept an outperform view; other shops have trimmed targets while many still rate the stock a buy, leaving investor guidance mixed. Oracle Price Target Lowered to $285.00 at Citizens Jmp
• Neutral Sentiment: Additional financing instruments announced — Oracle issued Series D mandatory convertible preferred stock and is pursuing equity offerings to fund AI expansion; financing reduces short-term liquidity risk but raises dilution questions. Oracle Issues Series D Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Widespread class-action notices — Multiple law firms have filed or invited investors to join securities-fraud class actions tied to Oracle’s AI spending disclosures and related filings for the June–Dec 2025 period, increasing legal and reputational risk. Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP Encourages Oracle Shareholders To Inquire About Securities Fraud Class Action
• Negative Sentiment: Capital-raise/dilution fears persist — Social and analyst commentary on a $45–50B AI capital plan and separate equity offerings ($20B common sale) have driven investor concern over dilution and higher leverage. Oracle Stock Opinions on $45-50 Billion AI Capital Raise
• Negative Sentiment: AI-driven tech sell-off and heavy put activity — A broader AI sell-off has hit big tech (FactSet/CNBC coverage), and unusually large purchases of puts on ORCL suggest traders were positioned for further downside. Big Tech sees over $1 trillion wiped from stocks as fears of AI bubble ignite sell-off
• Negative Sentiment: Local regulatory pushback on data center plan — Michigan’s attorney general urged reconsideration of approval to power Oracle/OpenAI data centers, adding permit/regulatory risk to the expansion. Michigan AG Urges Revisit on Oracle Data Center Power Plan

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Oracle from $364.00 to $339.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Citizens Jmp cut their price target on shares of Oracle from $342.00 to $285.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Oracle in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Oracle from $270.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stephens boosted their price target on Oracle from $208.00 to $331.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Oracle currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $299.17.

Oracle Stock Performance

Oracle stock opened at $143.11 on Friday. Oracle has a fifty-two week low of $118.86 and a fifty-two week high of $345.72. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $188.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $234.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $411.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.90, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.64.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 10th. The enterprise software provider reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.62. Oracle had a return on equity of 70.60% and a net margin of 25.28%.The company had revenue of $16.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.47 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Oracle will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Oracle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 9th were issued 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, January 9th. Oracle’s payout ratio is 37.59%.

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.