Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) stock fell on Thursday, hitting a fresh 52-week low of $125.57. The decline comes as deepening investor anxieties over massive artificial intelligence capital expenditures and cash burn counteracted the company’s recent cloud growth metrics. The Nasdaq is down 1.43% while the S&P 500 has shed 0.42%.
Infrastructure Spending Triggers Free Cash Flow Deficit
The hardware and software giant previously reported that its quarterly capital expenditure climbed to $16.49 billion. This surge contributed to a 162% increase in full-year capital expenditures, which reached $55.7 billion. Consequently, these infrastructure investments pushed Oracle’s free cash flow to a negative $23.7 billion, weighing heavily on market sentiment despite a 47% surge in cloud revenue and a contracted backlog reaching $638 billion.
Analyst Projections Highlight Extended Capex Risks
Prior research from BNP Paribas analyst Stefan Slowinski indicated that Oracle’s fiscal 2027 capital spending outlook remains a primary focal point for the market. Slowinski noted that capital expenditures could land between $80 billion and $100 billion as the company accelerates the development of non-Abilene Stargate campuses. BNP Paribas previously raised its fiscal 2027 capex estimate to $83 billion from $72 billion, well above the consensus estimate of approximately $60 billion.
Leadership Transition And Sovereign Cloud Expansions
The market continues to evaluate these spending trends under new CFO Hilary Maxson. Concurrently, reports on Wednesday indicated Oracle is leading rivals Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Alphabet Inc. to provide high-security, air-gapped cloud services to Japan.
Oracle Stock: Critical Levels To Watch
The longer-term chart remains decisively bearish: Oracle is trading 15.2% below its 20-day SMA, 29.9% below its 50-day SMA, and 34.5% below its 200-day SMA. The 20-day SMA sitting below the 50-day SMA reinforces the downtrend, and the death cross that formed in January (50-day below 200-day) keeps the bigger-picture trend pressure intact.
Momentum is the key near-term story, with RSI at 27.42—an oversold reading that often signals the selling has become stretched and can set up sharp countertrend bounces.
ORCL Stock Price Activity: Oracle shares were down 5.02% at $125.84 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo: Piotr Swat / Shutterstock
