Oracle Stock Brushes Off Bear Notes After Earnings

Stumbling software name Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is getting some respite today, following its fiscal third-quarter earnings report of 97 cents per share, which just beat analysts estimates. The $9.8 million in revenue also posted missed the mark, though the firm asserted that the coronavirus will have "minimal impact" on its fourth-quarter revenue. In response the cloud specialist is up 11.8% at $44.49, just one day after hitting a three-year low of $39.71. 

The revenue miss has sparked at least nine price-target cuts, the lowest being from Piper Sandler to $44 from $51. Coming into today, the stock's consensus 12-month price target of $51.08 sits at a 28.8% premium to last night's close. Meanwhile, the majority of analysts in coverage were already cautious on ORCL, with 16 calling it a "hold" or worse, while just four say "buy" or better. 

Already puts are running at two times their average daily pace, with 3,122 puts across the tape so far, with the 3,530 calls exchanging hands today also running at slightly quicker clip. The weekly 3/13 45-strike put is the most popular, with positions being opened here. 

Prior to today, The options pits were swarming with bulls. This is per ORCL's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.96 at the the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). This ratio sits in the 96th percentile of its annual range, implying that these traders have had a bigger-than-usual appetite for long calls of late.