Oracle shares tumble on disappointing Q2 numbers
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Thursday 11 Dec 2025
(Sharecast News) - Shares in Oracle Corporation fell sharply in after-hours trading on Thursday, after second-quarter numbers from the US tech giant disappointed.
Total revenues surged 14% - or 13% on a constant currency basis - to $16.06bn in the three months to 30 November, while revenues from its core cloud business were up 34% at $8bn.
However, Wall Street had been hoping for bigger increases, including total revenues of $16.21bn.
The Austin, Texas-based group also predicted a sharp uplift in spending. It now expects capital expenditure to reach around $50bn in the current fiscal year, $15bn more than its previous forecast in September.
Earnings per share surged 54% to $2.26, well ahead of the $1.64 pencilled in by analysts. However, the increase was largely due to the one-off $2.7bn pre-tax gain from the sale of Oracle's interest in chip manufacturer Ampere.
As at 0830 GMT, the stock had shed 10%.
Oracle is spending heavily as it looks to attract AI cloud computing clients, including building data centres. However, figures so far are failing to reassure analysts.
Looking ahead, Oracle said adjusted profit for the third quarter would come in between $1.64 and $1.68 per share, below expectations for $1.72.
Revenues were forecast to grow by between 16% and 18%, also below hopes for an 19.4% uplift to $16.87bn.
Chief executive Mike Sicilia said: "Oracle is in an unique position to embed AI in all three layers of our software products: our cloud datacentre software, out autonomous database and analytic software, and our applications software.
"All three of these Oracle software businesses are already big - AI will make them all better and bigger."
Fellow chief executive Clay Magouyrk added: "Oracle is very good at building and running high-performance and cost efficient cloud datacentres."
Oracle promoted Sicilia and Magouyrk to joint chief executives in September, after former incumbent Safra Catz - who had held the role since 2014 - became executive vice chair.
Oracle's billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison is chair and chief technology officer.
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Oracle's softer results reminded investors that not every tech story is bulletproof.
"Markets quickly looked past the massive earnings beat and focused on the rising capex and weak cash flows. Oracle has been at the epicentre of the AI financing debated, lacking the mammoth cash flows of the more traditional cloud giants - Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft."
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