Over the past decade, Oracle stock (NASDAQ: ORCL) has impressively returned $163 billion to its shareholders in the form of cash via dividends and buybacks. This shareholder-centric strategy has delivered extraordinary results in 2025, with the stock posting a remarkable 74% year-to-date return, dramatically outperforming the S&P 500 and establishing Oracle as one of the market’s top-performing large-cap technology stocks. This can primarily be attributed to the company’s remaining performance obligations (RPO), which skyrocketed 359% year-over-year to $455 billion in the latest quarter.
Oracle's commitment to consistent income generation was reinforced through the company's steady dividend payments, with the board declaring a quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 per share in September 2025, maintaining the $2.00 annual dividend that yields approximately 0.69% and marking the 11th consecutive year of dividend increases.
The enterprise software giant’s robust capital allocation was further demonstrated through aggressive share repurchases, with Oracle executing $5.3 billion in buybacks during fiscal 2025, significantly accelerating from the $1.2 billion repurchased in the previous year as management capitalizes on strong AI-driven cloud demand.
Oracle's exceptional financial performance has been underpinned by impressive revenue growth reaching $59.02 billion on a trailing twelve-month basis, with the company's cloud infrastructure and applications businesses experiencing accelerated adoption as enterprises increasingly migrate to Oracle's integrated AI-powered solutions. Let us examine some figures and see how this payout capability compares with the largest capital-return entities in the market.
That being said, if you seek an upside with less volatility than holding an individual stock like ORCL, consider the High Quality Portfolio. It has comfortably outperformed its benchmark—a combination of the S&P 500, Russell, and S&P MidCap indexes—and has achieved returns exceeding 91% since its inception. Why is that? As a group, HQ Portfolio stocks provided better returns with less risk versus the benchmark index; less of a roller-coaster ride, as evident in HQ Portfolio performance metrics. Separately, see – How Microsoft Stock Rises 2x To $1,000
It turns out that ORCL ranks as the 8th highest contributor to shareholder returns in history.
Why should you care? Because dividends and share repurchases are direct, tangible returns of capital to shareholders. They also demonstrate management’s confidence in the company’s financial stability and ability to produce sustainable cash flows. Moreover, numerous companies fit this description. Here is a list of the top 10 companies ranked by total capital returned to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases.
Top 10 Companies By Total Shareholder Return
For the complete ranking, visit Buybacks & Dividends Ranking
What do you notice here? The total capital returned to shareholders as a percentage of the current market cap seems inversely proportional to growth potential for reinvestments. Companies such as META and MSFT are experiencing much faster growth, more predictably compared to others, yet they have returned a significantly smaller portion of their market cap to shareholders.
That represents the flip side of substantial capital returns. Yes, they are enticing, but you must consider the question: Am I sacrificing growth and solid fundamentals? With that thought in mind, let’s examine some figures for ORCL. (See Buy or Sell ORCL Stock for more details)
ORCL Fundamentals
- Revenue Growth: 9.7% LTM and 10.2% last 3-year average.
- Cash Generation: Nearly 37% operating cash flow margin and 31.6% operating margin LTM.
- Recent Revenue Shocks: The minimum annual revenue growth in the last 3 years for ORCL was 6.0%.
- Valuation: ORCL trades at a P/E multiple of 64.2
- Opportunity vs S&P: Compared to S&P, you gain higher valuation, increased revenue growth, and improved operating margins.
ORCL Historical Risk
Despite that, Oracle is not immune to significant declines. It fell nearly 77% during the Dot-Com Bubble and dropped over 41% during the Global Financial Crisis. The Inflation Shock was also harsh, with a 40% decline. Even minor events — such as the 2018 Correction and the COVID-19 Pandemic — caused it to decrease approximately 19% and 29%, respectively. Strong fundamentals are important, but during sell-offs, Oracle can experience substantial pullbacks.
Also, investing in a single stock without comprehensive analysis can be risky. Consider the Trefis Reinforced Value (RV) Portfolio, which has outperformed its all-cap stocks benchmark (combination of the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000 benchmark indices) to produce strong returns for investors. Why is that? The quarterly rebalanced mix of large-, mid-, and small-cap RV Portfolio stocks provided a responsive way to make the most of upbeat market conditions while limiting losses when markets head south, as detailed in RV Portfolio performance metrics.