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Oracle stock (ORCL) slips in midday trade as Oppenheimer turns bullish; March earnings loom
26 February 2026
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Oracle stock (ORCL) slips in midday trade as Oppenheimer turns bullish; March earnings loom

New York, February 26, 2026, 12:08 EST — Regular session

Oracle Corp slipped 0.6% to $147.05 around midday Thursday, having bounced between $145.15 and $152.38 earlier. That comes after a 1.2% rise in the prior session.

All eyes now fall on Oracle as it pushes ahead with its cloud expansion, leaving investors to gauge if profits can rise without putting the balance sheet under pressure. “We see a favorable risk/reward after the stock’s multiples have been cut by more than half since September,” Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz said. Investing.com

Oracle shares edged lower Thursday as tech stocks lost ground, the Nasdaq weighed down following Nvidia’s drop despite the chipmaker beating forecasts. The market’s lukewarm response has investors uneasy over the pace at which hefty AI outlays might show up in profits.

Oppenheimer bumped up Oracle’s rating to “Outperform” from “Perform” and attached a $185 price target, saying the stock’s valuation has come down and some earlier concerns over financing and execution are fading. The firm now expects earnings per share — profit per share — to double by fiscal 2030, according to its latest forecasts. Investing.com

Oracle made sure its AI narrative stayed front and center Thursday, announcing a renewed title partnership with Red Bull Racing in Formula One. “We’ve done some really cool stuff with AI and there’s a lot more to come,” co-CEO Clay Magouyrk told Reuters. Reuters

Oracle’s expanded agreement centers on its Cloud Infrastructure and AI, fueling race simulations and supplying an AI-driven “strategy agent” that’s meant to help engineers make split-second decisions during races. Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies says Oracle’s tech lets the team quickly “understand and optimise countless variables.” oracle.com

Investors are still wrestling with the numbers behind the move. Oracle, on February 1, laid out plans to pull in $45 billion to $50 billion in calendar 2026 — a mix of debt and equity. That haul would include an at-the-market equity program capped at $20 billion, meaning Oracle could sell shares into the market at whatever price is going, plus a one-off investment-grade bond sale set for early 2026.

Still, Oracle’s strategy hinges on the state of the markets; higher borrowing costs would bite, and issuing more shares risks watering down current holdings. According to Reuters, some investors are zeroing in on Oracle’s dependence on just a handful of major cloud clients like OpenAI, particularly as the company steps up its infrastructure outlays.

Now for the numbers. Oracle’s investor-relations FAQ puts fiscal Q3 2026 earnings on the calendar for mid-March.

March 9 shows up on market calendars for Oracle’s earnings, but the company hasn’t made it official. Investors want concrete figures on cloud demand, capital expenditures, plus any news on the financing front.

Khadija Saeed is a financial markets reporter at TS2.tech, specializing in stocks, technology and emerging industries. She studied economics and finance at the London School of Economics and previously worked in market research before moving into financial journalism. Her coverage focuses on the companies, innovations and economic trends influencing global investors. Follow Khadija Saeed on Google News.

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