Oracle Climbs Nearly 11% After Setting a Free-Cash-Flow Target for 2029

Oracle climbed 10.7% on Wednesday to close at $144.54, its biggest one-day gain since the spring. The spark was its investor day. There, the company put a date on the one number its shareholders have pressed it about all year: free cash flow.

A date for the cash to turn positive

Speaking in Las Vegas, Oracle told investors it expects free cash flow to turn positive in the second half of fiscal 2028 and to reach $30 billion or more in fiscal 2029. The figure has been deeply negative. Oracle has poured money into data centers to serve cloud and artificial-intelligence customers, and the open question all year has been whether that building would ever throw off cash for the shareholders funding it.

Oracle paired the cash-flow target with a ceiling on how it will pay for the buildout. It said additional capital raises through fiscal 2030 would be capped at $20 billion, split evenly between equity and gross debt and excluding the refinancing of existing debt. Growth would be self-funded starting in fiscal 2029, the company said, with net debt held below 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA, a common gauge of operating earnings. Together, the funding plan commits Oracle to covering most of its remaining buildout with the cash the business generates. That was a direct answer to investors who had questioned the company’s rising debt load and its readiness to sell new shares to keep the data centers coming.

It also reaffirmed longer-dated goals. Oracle again guided to at least $225 billion in revenue by fiscal 2030, a compound annual growth rate above 35% from fiscal 2026, alongside a non-GAAP operating margin of 40% or more and non-GAAP earnings of at least $21 a share. Nearer term, it held its fiscal 2027 outlook of at least $90 billion in revenue and $8.10 in non-GAAP earnings per share. Co-chief executives Clay Magouryk and Mike Sicilia and finance chief Hilary Maxson led the presentations.

A rebound within a wide three-month band

Wednesday’s jump landed on heavy turnout. Volume ran close to three times the 20-day average, the kind of participation that usually marks institutional repositioning rather than casual buying. Even so, the stock has been a modest performer lately, up 4.9% over the past 30 days. The close of $144.54 still sits 17.4% below the three-month high of $175.07 and 25.7% above the three-month low of $114.99. That spread captures a volatile year, as investors argued back and forth over the payoff from heavy AI spending.

What the next quarter has to clear

The reaffirmed fiscal 2027 numbers set the near-term bar. Oracle’s fiscal second-quarter results, which the company has reported in December in recent years, will be the next test of whether revenue is tracking toward that $90 billion line. Beyond that, the dates Oracle set for itself are the ones the market is now holding it to: positive free cash flow in the second half of fiscal 2028, and $30 billion of it a year later. The rally priced in the plan. The quarters have to deliver it.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.