Escalating debt was the big worry for investors ahead of Oracle’s (ORCL) Q3 2026 earnings. However, growth and guidance stole the show. Shares in the Texas-based $474 billion database company are set to explode when Wall Street reopens later today. Pre-market trading is hinting at a near-11% jump to around $165.
Even so, the scars of volatility so far in 2026 are still evident. The stock will still be down 16% year-to-date even after today’s implied rally.
| Oracle (ORCL) | Price: 164.61 (+10.2%) | Market cap: $474bn |
What did Oracle say?
Oracle reported ‘clean beats across the board’, to quote Jefferies’ analysts. The company posted $1.79 EPS on $17.2 billion revenue, roughly 5% and 1.7% above ‘The Street’ consensus (EPS $1.70, rev $16.92bn).
Source: Koyfin
Drilling down revealed additional beats. Backlog is at $553 billion (325% growth), IaaS CC growth is 81% (infrastructure-as-a-service at constant currencies), total revenue CC growth is 18%, and 42.9% operating margins are all ahead of forecast.
Bullish guidance
The enterprise software company maintained its fiscal year 2026 guidance. It projects revenue of $67 billion and capital expenditures of $50 billion. Additionally, the company completed a $25 billion US bond sale in February.
Source: Oracle
But Oracle upped revenue guidance for fiscal year 2027 to $90 billion. That’s roughly $2.3 billion above current Koyfin consensus. Koyfin has $127.6 billion pencilled in for fiscal 2028. It seems fair to anticipate current EPS forecasts of $7.89 and $10.67 for the next two years to see upward pressure over the coming days. Additionally, the share price might rise given its current rolling 12-month PE of 19.2.
Oracle did not provide additional financial metrics or commentary regarding the guidance update in its statement. That probably tells us something about the elevated level of uncertainty hanging over Oracle and the rest of global markets as conflict continues to rage across the Middle East.
Worth noting however, is the rampant appetite for corporate bonds issued by Oracle and other big techs. Amazon (AMZN) has just launched dollar and euro note sales worth around $50 billion. This follows Alphabet’s (GOOG) $32 billion high grade dollar/euro note sale. The $37 billion dollar notes are reported to be roughly four-times oversubscribed, and you can see why. Getting 4%-5% (virtually) risk-free looks a nice place to park cash over the next year or two.
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