Oracle Short Sellers Scramble for Exits Ahead of Earnings Report

(Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp. short sellers are getting cold feet ahead of the software maker’s earnings report this afternoon.

More than two million shares have been covered over the past two days as the stock has risen to new records, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners. About 48.5 million shares are still on loan to bearish investors, or about 2 percent of the float, he said in an interview.

A 17 percent rally since the start of the year has cost short sellers about $378 million in mark-to-market losses, according to S3 data. Goldman Sachs expects Oracle to report "solid" fiscal third-quarter financial results amid signs of strength in spending on its on-premise and hybrid offerings.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeran Wittenstein in San Francisco at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Will Daley

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