Price Prediction: As AI Backlog Soars, Oracle Set for 50% Upside

Price Prediction: As AI Backlog Soars, Oracle Set for 50% Upside

Vandita Jadeja

Thu, September 17, 2026 at 8:30 PM GMT+3 5 min read

Quick Read

• Oracle (ORCL) trades at $147 despite a $664 billion AI backlog and 121% cloud growth, giving it a BUY target of $215.

• Oracle's forward P/E of 17 makes it significantly cheaper than Microsoft (MSFT) at 26 and Alphabet (GOOGL) at 22, despite faster cloud growth.

• The bear risk centers on negative $24 billion free cash flow and $90-$95 billion capex guidance that could force additional equity raises.

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Oracle just posted the loudest cloud quarter in enterprise software history, and the stock is falling anyway. That mismatch is the whole story.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) trades at $147.17 as of the September 17, 2026 open, down 51.46% over the past year despite an AI backlog that now dwarfs any other software company's. Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Oracle is $214.69, implying roughly 50% upside over the next 12 months. Our recommendation is buy, with 90% confidence.

24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary

How a Blowout Quarter Turned Into a Selloff

Oracle's fiscal Q1 2027, reported September 10, 2026, was the kind of earnings report that used to trigger multi-day rallies. Revenue hit $19.345 billion, up 29.6% year over year, non-GAAP EPS came in at $1.92 versus a $1.74 estimate, and cloud infrastructure grew 121%.

Remaining performance obligations swelled to $664 billion, with more than $30 billion in new AI contracts booked in the quarter alone.

Yet shares have fallen 8.95% in the past week, extending a five-session slide that MarketWatch flagged for missing the broader AI bounce, news that dovetailed with a surprising Larry Ellison announcement covered by Barron's. The market is fixating on the negative $5.396 billion quarterly free cash flow and $28.499 billion capex bill while discounting the backlog.

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Case for $250+ if the RPO Converts

Bulls have a specific, quantifiable thesis. Half of the $664 billion RPO is expected to convert to revenue over the next 36 months, and management guided full fiscal 2027 revenue to at least $90 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $8.10.

GPU utilization at 97.9% and renewals resold at a 20% premium point to real pricing power. The consensus analyst target of $239, with 8 Strong Buys and 28 Buys, backs that view. Our bull scenario projects $332.25 if Abilene, Shackleford, and Vera Rubin systems all ship on schedule.

What Could Go Wrong

The bear thesis is a cash math problem. FY26 free cash flow was negative $23.686 billion, interest expense climbed 55% to $1.4 billion, and full-year FY27 capex is guided to $90 to $95 billion. Any slip in Abilene, New Mexico, or Wisconsin data-center delivery would push RPO conversion out.

Bulls counter that CFO Hilary Maxson described these as "strong free-cash-flow-generating" projects once ramped, with roughly 100% conversion of post-tax EBITDA. Our bear scenario floor sits at $181.20, still above today's price.

Is Oracle Cheaper Than Microsoft and Alphabet?

The most direct comparison is against the two hyperscalers Oracle is actively taking share from through its multicloud footprint. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) trades at a forward P/E of 26 and a price-to-sales ratio of 11, with an analyst target of $572.92.

Microsoft's Azure remains the anchor hyperscaler and now co-hosts Oracle databases inside its regions, which makes it both a rival and a partner. Oracle's forward P/E of 17 is a full multiple turn cheaper on growth that is faster in the cloud segment.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) trades at a forward P/E of 22 and a price-to-sales ratio of 9. Google Cloud is Oracle's most direct multicloud partner and its clearest AI infrastructure rival.

Alphabet's 54.8% profit margin dwarfs Oracle's 26.4%, but Oracle's IaaS is growing at 121%. On both peer benchmarks, Oracle looks cheap, which makes our $214.69 target look conservative rather than aggressive.

Why the Setup Favors Patient Buyers

Our 24/7 Wall St. price target of $214.69, buy rating, and 90% confidence rest on one factor: the RPO backlog is too large and the multiple is too low for this to stay disconnected for long.

The bull case works for investors who can tolerate volatility and expect Oracle to convert even 40% of RPO into revenue over three years. The bear case gains weight if the FY27 capex guide of $90 to $95 billion forces another equity raise beyond the completed $20 billion ATM program. The setup favors patient buyers.

These projections assume Oracle continues converting its AI backlog and returns to positive free cash flow by fiscal 2029. Significant upside or downside could result from data-center delivery timing or a sudden shift in AI compute pricing. The buildout Oracle is financing has to be powered, cooled, and networked by somebody, and we profiled seven of those suppliers in a free report on the AI infrastructure trade.

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Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.