Investors banished Oracle to the penalty box in September after disappointing fiscal 2024 first-quarter results and guidance. Upcoming quarterly results Monday evening may be what the enterprise software and emerging cloud giant needs to skate free. Oracle is expected to post revenue of $13.05 billion in the three months ended Nov. 30, according to a consensus of analyst estimates compiled by LSEG, representing 6.3% year-over-year growth. Analysts see the company’s earnings-per-share increasing 9.1% from the year-ago period to $1.32 in its fiscal 2024 second quarter. “Oracle failed to beat expectations last time, a highly unusual occurrence,” Jim Cramer said Friday. “It would be shocking for them to miss a second time in a row.” Oracle’s fiscal Q1 revenue and guidance failed to clear Wall Street’s sky-high bar after the closing bell on Sept. 11, sending shares plunging 13.5% the next day to $109.61 each. At the time, Jim called the stock’s move a major overreaction. Still, additional declines persisted into October, before shares bottomed on Oct. 3 at $104.52 apiece. Oracle stock has narrowly underperformed the S & P 500 since then. In the session before September’s report, Oracle shares had closed at an all-time high of $126.71 each. At nearly $113 per share Friday, the stock still needs about 12% more upside to return to its old highs. In the wake of September’s selloff, we’ve bought Oracle stock five times, most recently on Nov. 1 at roughly $105 per share . ORCL YTD mountain Oracle’s stock performance so far in 2023. The performance of Oracle’s cloud-computing division — known as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI — will be a key focus in Monday’s earnings report. OCI is an important growth driver for the legacy tech firm as spending on artificial intelligence booms, requiring more computing power to handle AI tasks. It’s a significant reason why some investors, including us at the Club, bought stakes in the company this year . Oracle CEO Safra Catz…
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