New York, Feb 9, 2026, 10:56 EST — Regular session
- Oracle jumped roughly 8% after DA Davidson upgraded the shares to “buy.” Melius, on the other hand, downgraded its rating to “hold.”
- These calls follow a steep drop in U.S. software stocks, as renewed worries flare up over just how rapidly AI might shake up the industry.
- Oracle’s approach to funding its cloud expansion and the schedule for its upcoming quarterly update are under investor scrutiny.
Oracle surged 8.2% to $154.53 Monday morning, with the stock moving between $142.09 and $157.67 as a bullish upgrade clashed with a cautious downgrade in the background.
Oracle’s role in the “AI trade” just got heavier. The stock has turned into a pressure gauge for U.S. software, especially after that steep drop across the sector. Investors are watching closely for any hint the recent selloff might have overshot.
Earlier this Monday, Reuters pointed out Oracle as the standout underperformer in the software sector’s latest rout. The stock has dropped close to 50% between Oct. 29 and Feb. 5, as anxiety spread that rapidly advancing AI could disrupt key pieces of the industry’s business model. 1
DA Davidson’s Gil Luria bumped Oracle up to “buy” from “neutral” and left his $180 target unchanged. In a note, Luria said, “the market has overshot to the downside,” citing a shift in investor expectations about Oracle’s ties to OpenAI. 2
Melius Research took a different stance, cutting Oracle to “hold” from “buy” and setting a $160 price target. Analyst Ben Reitzes flagged concerns around cash generation, writing that Oracle “doesn’t generate cash and there is no guarantee that OpenAI beats Anthropic and Google.” He also warned, “value may be absorbed by debt and new stock issuances for a while.” 3
Oracle has flagged the financing issue directly for investors. On Feb. 1, the company outlined plans to raise between $45 billion and $50 billion in 2026 for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure growth. About half of that would come from debt, the rest from equity — which includes an at-the-market program that could reach $20 billion. That setup lets Oracle sell shares gradually at market prices. 4
Defensive plays aren’t universal here. On Monday, Bernstein SocGen lowered its Oracle price target to $313 from $339 but stuck with an Outperform, describing the stock as “a solid entry point” and “one of the few revenue and EPS acceleration stories in software.” 5
Oracle’s jump grabbed attention, outpacing gains from other enterprise software heavyweights. Microsoft added 2.1%. SAP’s U.S. shares climbed roughly 2.3%.
Still, there’s a catch to the rebound. Should Oracle’s cloud bets fail to deliver better cash flow, or if OpenAI-driven demand falls short, investors may keep zeroing in on dilution from new share issuance and the hefty price tag for expanding data centers—a risk bears keep flagging in their latest notes.
Now, traders are eyeing Oracle’s next move on capital-raising and waiting for fresh details from the company’s upcoming quarterly report. Oracle has said it’ll report fiscal third-quarter results in mid-March. 6
