Oracle(NYSE:ORCL), a database and cloud software provider, closed Wednesday at $163.12, up 9.18%. The stock rallied after a fiscal Q3 earnings and revenue beat, strong cloud and AI growth, and raised long-term revenue guidance. Investors are also eyeing execution on large AI data center projects.
Trading volume reached 79 million shares, coming in about 162% above its three-month average of 30.1 million shares. Oracle IPO'd in 1986 and has grown 257,656% since going public.
How the markets moved today
S&P 500(SNPINDEX:^GSPC) slipped 0.10% to 6,775, while the Nasdaq Composite(NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) edged up 0.08% to 22,716. Within enterprise software and cloud computing, industry peers Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) closed at $404.88 (-0.22%) and International Business Machines(NYSE:IBM) finished at $248.87 (-0.53%), lagging Oracle’s post-earnings surge.
What this means for investors
Investors breathed a big sigh of relief after Oracle’s earnings announcement. That’s because the company has become the face of concern over spending on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Even after today’s jump, Oracle stock is down over 16% this year as investors worried that it was overextending itself with capital spending on AI. This report eased fears over its aggressive AI spending, though.
Oracle reported 22% revenue growth, including 44% cloud revenue growth. It also reported a $553 billion backlog and provided an upbeat 2027 outlook. The company also said it doesn’t have any plans to issue bonds beyond what has already been announced this year. That may have been the biggest news that had investors buying shares today.
Should you buy stock in Oracle right now?
Before you buy stock in Oracle, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Oracle wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $522,791!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,132,678!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 952% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 191% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
*Stock Advisor returns as of March 11, 2026.
Howard Smith has positions in Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends International Business Machines, Microsoft, and Oracle. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
