Today, a major event struck Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL). Larry Ellison, founder, chairman, and largest shareholder of Oracle, sold stock. Some might shrug such a move off, but this was big enough to send Oracle itself down in Friday’s trading.
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Under normal circumstances, Larry Ellison selling stock might be a perfectly normal event, scarcely worthy of notice. However, this is different. Larry Ellison hasn’t sold Oracle stock for the last two years. Though at last report, according to SEC forms, Ellison owns 1.15 billion shares of Oracle as it is, so any kind of sale might be a trivial event after all. Further, Ellison’s sale was part of an options scheme; he purchased 5.25 million shares of Oracle for $158.1 million, then sold the shares for $640 million total. He still has the 1.15 billion shares he held originally.
That brings us to the biggest reason not to be concerned; the options in question had an expiration date: July 1. So Ellison simply used what he would have otherwise lost anyway and made more money doing so than most of us will see in a lifetime. There are some other concerns afoot for Oracle, though; a Business Insider report noted that Oracle has been actively trying to get money out of Twitter to cover unpaid bills, but the process is not going well so far. This is particularly difficult as Ellison and current “Head Twit” Elon Musk are good friends.
Analysts, however, are somewhat split on Oracle’s overall trajectory. With 13 Buy ratings and 12 Holds, it’s a nearly-perfect split that leaves Oracle stock as a Moderate Buy. Meanwhile, Oracle stock also offers investors 9.39% upside potential thanks to its average price target of $129.37.
