Oscar Health (OSCR) Stock Soars on Piper Sandler Upgrade and ACA Tailwinds

Oscar Health, Inc. (NYSE: OSCR) is surging again today. As of mid‑afternoon trading on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, Oscar Health stock is trading around $18.20, up roughly 8–9% on the day, after moving between about $16.20 and $18.60 in today’s session. ^[1]

The move extends an already powerful run: shares are up roughly 25% over the past week, driven by a combination of bullish analyst calls and improving policy visibility around Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. ^[2]

Below is a detailed, news‑driven look at why Oscar Health stock is rallying today, what analysts are saying, how the latest numbers stack up, and the key risks investors should keep in mind.

Oscar Health Stock Today: OSCR Rallies Again on November 26, 2025

Last price (intraday): about $18.2
Day change: roughly +8–9% versus Tuesday’s close near $16.73 ^[3]
Intraday range: approximately $16.20 – $18.63 ^[4]
Volume: well above typical levels, with multiple outlets citing 10M+ shares traded by midday. ^[5]

Today’s spike follows a huge jump earlier in the week after reports that the White House is backing a framework to extend enhanced ACA subsidies, a key driver of Oscar’s marketplace membership and revenue growth. ^[6]

But the fresh catalyst on November 26, 2025 is a high‑profile analyst upgrade from Piper Sandler that is reshaping sentiment around the stock.

Today’s Big Catalyst: Piper Sandler’s Upgrade to Overweight and a $25 Price Target

This morning, Piper Sandler upgraded Oscar Health from “Neutral” to “Overweight” and nearly doubled its price target from $13 to $25. ^[7]

Several outlets summarized the key points from analyst Jessica Tassan’s note:

Piper Sandler believes Oscar can grow both market share and profitability even in a scenario where enhanced premium tax credits (E‑APTCs) under the ACA expire at the end of 2025. ^[8]
After a deep dive into Oscar’s benefit design, pricing, and broker strategy in Miami‑Dade County—its largest market—the firm now sees 2027 adjusted EBITDA of about $404 million as a “floor”, implying substantial earnings power versus today’s losses. ^[9]
For 2026, Oscar has priced its ACA marketplace products assuming a much harsher environment, including the loss of enhanced subsidies, higher utilization, tariffs, and a weaker risk pool. Weighted average 2026 rates are up about 28% year over year, which Piper views as a deliberate attempt to recapture margins rather than a sign of distress. ^[10]

This shift stands out because Wall Street had been lukewarm or outright bearish on OSCR just weeks ago. Wells Fargo, Barclays and UBS all carried “Underweight” or “Sell” ratings with targets in the $8–$14 range earlier in November. ^[11]

The Piper Sandler call, therefore, isn’t just a routine tweak—it is a meaningful reversal in analyst sentiment, and today’s price action shows the market is paying attention.

Regulatory Tailwinds: ACA Subsidy Story Still Matters

While today’s headline is the Piper upgrade, policy news out of Washington remains an important part of the bull case.

Earlier this week, reporting highlighted a White House framework that would extend enhanced ACA subsidies for two more years and raise eligibility caps to as high as 700% of the federal poverty line under a proposed “Healthcare Price Cuts Act.” ^[12]

Benzinga notes that without this kind of extension, Oscar faced a “fiscal cliff” where:

Expiring subsidies would force sharp premium hikes
Healthier members might drop coverage
The remaining pool could skew sicker, pressuring margins through adverse selection ^[13]

If the subsidy extension goes through largely as reported, it removes or softens a major structural risk for Oscar Health:

Membership is more likely to stay stable or grow
The company can leverage its technology‑heavy model across a predictable base
The market can focus more on execution and profitability rather than existential policy risk

That combination—a more confident policy backdrop plus a big analyst vote of confidence—is exactly the kind of setup that can spark the multi‑day rally investors are seeing in OSCR this week. ^[14]

What Q3 2025 Results Tell Us About Oscar Health’s Fundamentals

Today’s move is happening in the context of mixed but improving fundamentals, based on Oscar’s third‑quarter 2025 earnings released earlier this month. ^[15]

Key takeaways from Q3 2025:

Revenue: About $2.99 billion, slightly below the roughly $3.08 billion Wall Street consensus. ^[16]
Operating loss: Approximately $129 million, wider than the $48 million loss in Q3 2024, driven largely by higher market morbidity and increased risk‑adjustment accruals. ^[17]
Medical loss ratio (MLR): Rose to 88.5% from 84.6% a year ago, reflecting a tougher claims environment. ^[18]
Net loss: Around $137.5 million, or –$0.53 per share, versus –$0.22 per share in the prior‑year quarter. ^[19]
Membership: Roughly 2.12 million members, showing continued growth even as profitability remains elusive. ^[20]
2025 outlook: Management reaffirmed full‑year 2025 revenue guidance of $12.0–$12.2 billion, signaling confidence in top‑line momentum despite the Q3 miss. ^[21]

Oscar also disclosed a partial exchange of its 7.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2031. By early November, about $187.5 million in principal had been exchanged for roughly 23.3 million Class A shares, a move the company framed as a way to reduce interest expense and simplify its balance sheet. ^[22]

In short, the fundamentals show:

Robust revenue growth and membership expansion
Persistently high medical costs and significant losses
A deliberate effort to de‑lever and manage capital structure

Analysts like Piper Sandler are effectively arguing that today’s losses are the price of building scale, and that by 2026–2027, Oscar can translate that scale into attractive margins—even if subsidies become less generous. ^[23]

Strategic Expansion: New Markets, New Plans and Employer Partnerships

Part of the bullish narrative around Oscar Health stock today is the company’s aggressive geographic and product expansion heading into the 2026 plan year.

Recent press releases from Oscar highlight: ^[24]

Broad 2026 open‑enrollment expansion across cities such as Dayton, Tampa, San Antonio, Phoenix, Orlando, New Jersey markets, Southern Florida and multiple Ohio and Texas metros, offering Bronze, Silver and Gold plans tailored to different budgets and needs.
Features like $0 virtual urgent and primary care visits, dedicated Oscar Care Guides, tech‑enabled navigation tools, and low‑cost prescription options designed to differentiate the product on experience, not just price.
A Hy‑Vee Health partnership in Des Moines, launching a concierge‑style employer plan that blends grocery‑adjacent health services with Oscar’s technology platform. ^[25]

Trading‑focused outlets note that these rollouts, combined with an expanding toolbox of AI‑driven health tools and digital care solutions, have helped underpin today’s optimism about long‑term revenue and EBITDA growth, even as the company weathers near‑term losses. ^[26]

Round‑Up of Today’s OSCR Headlines (November 26, 2025)

News coverage on Oscar Health stock today, November 26, 2025, is unusually dense. Among the notable headlines:

Benzinga: Explains why “Oscar Health (OSCR) Stock Is Soaring”, highlighting Piper Sandler’s upgrade and the White House’s push to extend ACA subsidies, and notes shares were up over 9% around $18.28 at midday. ^[27]
Investing.com: Focuses on the Piper upgrade, emphasising Oscar’s ability to improve margins and grow share even if enhanced subsidies expire and summarizing the company’s 28% average rate hikes for 2026 to recapture margins. ^[28]
24/7 Wall St: Groups Oscar with Broadcom and Amazon as stocks “Wall Street loves today,” again highlighting the jump from a $13 to $25 target and the potential for margin and market‑share expansion as subsidies roll off. ^[29]
GuruFocus / MT Newswires: Reports the Piper Sandler upgrade and new $25 target, framing it as a notable shift in sentiment given a prior mix of Underweight and Sell ratings. ^[30]
TipRanks / TheFly: Details the Miami‑Dade deep dive and the view that 2027 adjusted EBITDA of about $404 million is a conservative “floor.” ^[31]
Timothy Sykes & StocksToTrade: Cover the intraday surge (around 7–9% at midday), referencing Oscar’s expansions, Q3 numbers, “first green day” momentum and day‑trader interest as OSCR hits new short‑term highs. ^[32]

Collectively, today’s coverage paints a consistent story: OSCR is moving because (1) a major Wall Street firm now sees upside in the name and (2) policy and product‑expansion narratives are lining up in its favor.

Not Everyone Is Sold: Valuation and Volatility Risks

Even with today’s rally, Oscar Health is not a low‑risk, consensus favorite.

A recent analysis from Simply Wall St, published November 7, 2025, pointed out that: ^[33]

Oscar shares had slumped about 26% in the prior 30 days, despite a roughly 21% gain over the past year.
The stock traded at a price‑to‑sales ratio around 0.4x, below many U.S. insurance peers, despite strong historical revenue growth.
Analysts, on average, expect Oscar’s revenue to grow faster than the broader insurance industry, but the market may still be pricing in significant risk around revenue stability and execution.

Layer on top of that:

High medical loss ratios and widening losses in the latest quarter ^[34]
Ongoing dependence on ACA marketplace dynamics and federal subsidies ^[35]
Dilution risk from convertible note exchanges ^[36]

…and it’s clear why Oscar Health stock has been extremely volatile. OSCR has already swung from steep sell‑offs to sharp rallies several times this year, and today’s pop could continue that pattern rather than end it.

What Today’s Rally Means for Oscar Health Investors

Putting it all together, here’s how today’s Oscar Health stock news lines up:

Short‑term sentiment:
- Strongly positive today, powered by a high‑impact analyst upgrade and ongoing ACA subsidy optimism.
- OSCR is trading at multi‑week highs with elevated volume, attracting both institutional and active retail traders. ^[37]
Medium‑term story (2025–2027):
- Management is betting that pricing changes, new markets and tech‑enabled care can push Oscar to meaningful EBITDA by 2027, a view now echoed by Piper Sandler. ^[38]
- Q3 results show real revenue and membership scale, but also underline that execution on costs and risk management still has a lot to prove. ^[39]
Risk profile:
- Oscar remains high beta, deeply exposed to policy decisions, regulatory changes and healthcare utilization trends.
- Prior drawdowns, including the 26% slide highlighted earlier this month, show how quickly sentiment can turn. ^[40]

For readers following Oscar Health stock today (OSCR), the takeaway is that November 26, 2025 marks a clear inflection point in Wall Street expectations, but not the end of the debate. Bulls now have a detailed roadmap from a top analyst, plus regulatory momentum; bears can still point to persistent losses, policy uncertainty and past volatility.

As always, anyone considering OSCR should do independent research, review the company’s full SEC filings and earnings materials, and weigh the stock’s risk profile against their own objectives and tolerance for sharp swings.

This article is for informational and news purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any security, or a solicitation of any investment strategy. Markets move quickly; prices and data referenced are as of November 26, 2025 and may have changed since publication.

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