ORCL · Technology(services-prepackaged software) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2026-05-31
Oracle Corp reported revenue of $67.4 billion in fiscal 2026, after growing 6.6% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin narrowed from 34.2% in 2017 to 30.6%. Of the $171.3 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 64.6% went to buybacks and 61.9% back into the business; the share count fell 30.9%. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 0.80 is in the distress zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202667.4B+6.6% a year over 9 years
Operating margin30.6%gross margin —
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay-28.5B-42.3% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDANet cash24.1B more cash than debt
Piotroski F-score5/8tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
020.0B40.0B60.0B80.0B
2017Revenue 37.8BOperating income 12.9B
2018Revenue 39.4BOperating income 13.3B
2019Revenue 39.5BOperating income 13.5B
2020Revenue 39.1BOperating income 13.9B
2021Revenue 40.5BOperating income 15.2B
2022Revenue 42.4BOperating income 10.9B
2023Revenue 50.0BOperating income 13.1B
2024Revenue 53.0BOperating income 15.4B
2025Revenue 57.4BOperating income 17.7B
2026Revenue 67.4BOperating income 20.6B
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+10.5%
+10.7%
+6.6%
Operating income
+16.3%
+6.3%
+5.3%
Net income
+26.2%
+4.4%
+6.8%
Earnings per share
+24.0%
+5.2%
+11.3%
Dividend per share
+14.4%
+14.4%
+13.7%
Shares
+1.8%
-0.7%
-4.0%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
-40.0%-20.0%0.0%20.0%40.0%
2017Operating 34.2%Net 25.0%Free cash flow 32.0%
2018Operating 33.7%Net 9.1%Free cash flow 34.7%
2019Operating 34.3%Net 28.1%Free cash flow 32.6%
2020Operating 35.6%Net 25.9%Free cash flow 29.6%
2021Operating 37.6%Net 34.0%Free cash flow 34.0%
2022Operating 25.7%Net 15.8%Free cash flow 11.8%
2023Operating 26.2%Net 17.0%Free cash flow 17.0%
2024Operating 29.0%Net 19.8%Free cash flow 22.3%
2025Operating 30.8%Net 21.7%Free cash flow -0.7%
2026Operating 30.6%Net 25.4%Free cash flow -35.2%
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capital
0.0%5.0%10.0%15.0%20.0%
2017Return on invested capital 16.4%
2018Return on invested capital 8.2%
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
40.2%
Return on assets
6.5%
Asset turnover
0.26×
Research & development
15.3% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
2.4% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-40.0B-20.0B020.0B
2017Net income 9.5BFree cash flow 12.1BAfter stock-based pay 10.8B
2018Net income 3.6BFree cash flow 13.7BAfter stock-based pay 12.0B
2019Net income 11.1BFree cash flow 12.9BAfter stock-based pay 11.2B
2020Net income 10.1BFree cash flow 11.6BAfter stock-based pay 10.0B
2021Net income 13.7BFree cash flow 13.8BAfter stock-based pay 11.9B
2022Net income 6.7BFree cash flow 5.0BAfter stock-based pay 2.4B
2023Net income 8.5BFree cash flow 8.5BAfter stock-based pay 4.9B
2024Net income 10.5BFree cash flow 11.8BAfter stock-based pay 7.8B
2025Net income 12.4BFree cash flow -394.0MAfter stock-based pay -5.1B
2026Net income 17.1BFree cash flow -23.7BAfter stock-based pay -28.5B
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2017–2026
171.3B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 62%106.1B
Acquisitions 24%41.4B
Dividends 22%36.9B
Share buybacks 65%110.7B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -72%-123.8B
Over the same years it paid 27.7B in stock. The share count fell 30.9%. 83.0B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-10.00$-5.00$0.00$5.00$10.00
2017Earnings per share $2.24Free cash flow per share $2.87Dividend per share $0.62
2018Earnings per share $0.85Free cash flow per share $3.22Dividend per share $0.74
2019Earnings per share $2.97Free cash flow per share $3.45Dividend per share $0.79
2020Earnings per share $3.08Free cash flow per share $3.51Dividend per share $0.93
2021Earnings per share $4.55Free cash flow per share $4.55Dividend per share $1.01
2022Earnings per share $2.41Free cash flow per share $1.80Dividend per share $1.24
2023Earnings per share $3.07Free cash flow per share $3.06Dividend per share $1.33
2024Earnings per share $3.71Free cash flow per share $4.18Dividend per share $1.56
2025Earnings per share $4.34Free cash flow per share $-0.14Dividend per share $1.65
2026Earnings per share $5.86Free cash flow per share $-8.13Dividend per share $1.99
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
2.5B3.0B3.5B4.0B4.5B
2017Diluted shares 4.2B
2018Diluted shares 4.2B
2019Diluted shares 3.7B
2020Diluted shares 3.3B
2021Diluted shares 3.0B
2022Diluted shares 2.8B
2023Diluted shares 2.8B
2024Diluted shares 2.8B
2025Diluted shares 2.9B
2026Diluted shares 2.9B
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
-40.0B-30.0B-20.0B-10.0B010.0B
2017Net debt -12.0B
2018Net debt -17.1B
2019Net debt -16.0B
2020Net debt -34.9B
2021Net debt -21.8B
2022Net debt -17.6B
2023Net debt -5.7B
2024Net debt 151.0M
2025Net debt -3.5B
2026Net debt -24.1B
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
-0.9×
Interest coverage
4× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.12 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 56d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
5of 8 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
✓More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforepassed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
0.80distress zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.02 × 6.56+0.12
Retained earnings ÷ assets -0.02 × 3.26-0.05
Operating income ÷ assets 0.08 × 6.72+0.53
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.19 × 1.05+0.20
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-2.57below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.03+0.95
Gross margin slipping 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.53
Soft assets 0.74+0.30
Sales growth 1.17+1.05
Slower depreciation 1.15+0.13
Overheads vs sales 0.86-0.15
Profit not in cash -0.06-0.27
Leverage rising 0.82-0.27
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.