{"id":194240,"date":"2025-12-16T06:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/194240\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T06:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:38:10","slug":"down-42-from-its-high-is-oracle-the-best-ai-growth-stock-to-buy-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/194240\/","title":{"rendered":"Down 42% From Its High, Is Oracle the Best AI Growth Stock to Buy in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oracle could fall further, but the growth potential is impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n<p>Oracle (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/quote\/nyse\/orcl\/\" class=\"font-bold hover:underline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ORCL<\/a> 2.66%) stock fell as much as 16.5% on Dec. 11 in response to the company&#8217;s second-quarter fiscal 2026 results.<\/p>\n<p>Now, at the time of this writing, Oracle is down roughly 42% from its 52-week high, which was made just three months ago.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s why the sell-off in Oracle has gone too far, and why Oracle stands out as a top <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/market-sectors\/information-technology\/ai-stocks\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">artificial intelligence (AI) growth stock<\/a> to buy and hold.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Bright colors illuminate blocks of words and numbers on a computer chip, illustrating the concepts of artificial intelligence and big data.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"h-auto max-w-full rounded object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765867090_753_\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p>Oracle is swinging for the fences<\/p>\n<p>Leverage is a double-edged sword. It magnifies gains to the upside and amplifies losses. Debt allows companies to fund ideas that wouldn&#8217;t be possible with their own earnings. Oracle is doing just that.<\/p>\n<p>Oracle exited its latest quarter with over $80 billion in non-current notes payable and other borrowings net of cash and cash equivalents. This is basically long-term debt net of cash.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, other cloud giants and chip makers, like Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Nvidia, and Broadcom, either have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2025\/12\/08\/best-magnificent-seven-stocks-buy-2026-microsoft\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">very little debt<\/a> or more cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities than debt on their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/how-to-invest\/stocks\/beginners-guide-financial-statements\/balance-sheet\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">balance sheets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the wild west of AI, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet are proven major players using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/f\/free-cash-flow\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">free cash flow<\/a> (FCF) from their existing oil wells to explore for new reserves. Whereas Oracle is taking a chance and hoping to strike it big with a few wildcat wells. At least that&#8217;s the narrative that is floating around right now. But there&#8217;s more nuance to it.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Oracle Stock Quote\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full flex-none object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765867090_116_\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Change<\/p>\n<p>(-2.66%) $-5.05<\/p>\n<p>Current Price<\/p>\n<p>$184.92<\/p>\n<p>Key Data Points<\/p>\n<p>Market Cap<\/p>\n<p>$531B<\/p>\n<p>Day&#8217;s Range<\/p>\n<p>$181.40 &#8211; $188.97<\/p>\n<p>52wk Range<\/p>\n<p>$118.86 &#8211; $345.72<\/p>\n<p>Volume<\/p>\n<p>44M<\/p>\n<p>Avg Vol<\/p>\n<p>26M<\/p>\n<p>Gross Margin<\/p>\n<p>65.40%<\/p>\n<p>Dividend Yield<\/p>\n<p>1.03%<\/p>\n<p>Oracle&#8217;s game plan isn&#8217;t as far-fetched as it seems<\/p>\n<p>While Oracle is taking on a lot of debt to fund the buildout of its AI data centers and paying over $1 billion in interest on its debt every quarter, its core software business is a cash cow. And the only reason Oracle is FCF negative is that it is spending so much on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/c\/capital-expenditure\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">capital expenditures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Oracle is just over halfway through a multiyear buildout of 72 multicloud data centers that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2025\/09\/16\/prediction-oracle-will-surpass-amazon-microsoft-an\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">embed native versions<\/a> of Oracle Exadata Database Service and Oracle Autonomous Database inside Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.<\/p>\n<p>This method eliminates the need to transfer large datasets across clouds, thereby reducing latency, enhancing performance, and lowering costs. As these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/d\/data-center\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">data centers<\/a> get built, along with data centers specific to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle should see its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2025\/09\/14\/oracle-red-hot-ten-titans-growth-stock\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FCF increase and its capex fall<\/a>, which should allow it to accelerate its debt paydown.<\/p>\n<p>Oracle is worth the risks<\/p>\n<p>Oracle&#8217;s bold bet on infrastructure makes a ton of sense for investors who believe that demand for cloud infrastructure, especially for high-performance computing (which is Oracle&#8217;s focus), will increase in the coming decades. And if it pays off, Oracle will look incredibly cheap. Even now, it trades at under 30 times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/f\/forward-pe\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forward earnings<\/a>, which is a steal for a high-octane growth stock that should be able to accelerate earnings growth in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>Investors should only approach Oracle if they have a high risk tolerance, a long time horizon, and are willing to tolerate significant volatility. Some folks may prefer to wait and see how profitable Oracle&#8217;s contracts are before buying the stock, as Oracle could be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2025\/11\/07\/buy-dip-oracle-growth-stock-sell-off\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">undercutting competitors on<\/a> pricing to win contracts, which would lead to lower margins.<\/p>\n<p>Even when factoring in the risks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2025\/11\/15\/buy-dip-ai-growth-stock-oracle\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oracle&#8217;s potential<\/a> is sky high, making it one of the best AI growth stocks for long-term investors to buy in 2026.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/author\/20117\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Foelber<\/a> has positions in Nvidia and Oracle and has the following options: short March 2026 $240 calls on Oracle. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/legal\/fool-disclosure-policy\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oracle could fall further, but the growth potential is impossible to ignore. Oracle (ORCL 2.66%) stock fell as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-194240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}