New York, Feb 26, 2026, 18:10 (EST) — After-hours
- Oracle ended the session up 1.6%, but dipped 1.4% in after-hours trading.
- Oppenheimer bumped Oracle up to Outperform, setting a price target of $185.
- AI investment and the sector’s appetite for fresh capital are still the big hurdles for the market.
Oracle Corp dropped 1.4% to $148.20 in Thursday’s after-hours action, giving back ground after closing the day session up $2.42, or 1.64%, at $150.31.
Trading after 4 p.m. tends to get choppy, volume thinning out. Oracle shares have been caught up in the tug-of-war over whether massive AI infrastructure outlays will actually show up as fatter profits.
Thursday’s trading session was tougher. Nvidia slipped 5.5%, despite handing in an upbeat earnings report, and that drop dragged the Nasdaq down 1.18%. The index’s AI-tilted tech contingent took the hit.
Earlier this week, Oppenheimer stepped in with support for Oracle, upgrading the stock to Outperform and tagging it with a $185 target. “While our call may be early … we see a favorable risk/reward,” analyst Brian Schwartz said. He called Oracle a “strong EPS compounder,” pointing to the company’s consistent earnings-per-share gains. Investing.com
Oracle kicked off at $148.79, swung between $145.18 and $152.33, and saw roughly 19.9 million shares trade hands during the session, Investing.com data show.
The question of spending has been around for a while. Back on Feb. 1, Oracle projected it would bring in $45 billion to $50 billion in gross cash proceeds in calendar 2026, tapping both equity and debt. The company wants to hold onto its investment-grade balance sheet as it ramps up cloud capacity.
Oracle’s been ramping up its bets on cloud infrastructure and data-center expansions—territory where Amazon.com and Microsoft already hold the upper hand and deeper pockets. Investors are eyeing whether Oracle can actually lock in sufficient long-term workloads to make all this spending worth it.
Concentration risk isn’t going away. Reuters reported OpenAI is set to snap up around $300 billion worth of computing power from Oracle across five years—a cloud deal that would put it among the largest ever, according to the outlet.
Oracle dropped a new headline on Thursday, this one away from the main market action. The company and Red Bull Racing announced they’re renewing their Formula One title partnership. Oracle highlighted an AI “strategy agent” powered by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, set for launch at the 2026 season opener in Australia. Reuters
Right now, traders are watching two things at once—a steady drumbeat of optimism about long-term earnings, and a stock that still jumps or drops on every sign the cash burn might drag out longer than expected.
Execution’s the next hurdle. Investors want to see Oracle keep cloud demand steady, ideally without another jump in funding. Eyes are also on brokers—will more upgrades come through, or do opinions start to turn?
Oracle’s next quarterly update is up next, with Wall Street circling March 9 as the likely earnings date. Cloud revenue, spending patterns, and talk around financing are the focal points for analysts.
