UPDATE: Morgan Stanley Downgrades Oracle Corporation to Equal-Weight, Removes PT on Fair Valuation

In a report published Thursday, Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss downgraded the rating on

from Overweight to Equal-Weight, and removed the $36.00 price target. In the report, Morgan Stanley noted, “ORCL now trades near our price target and, in our view, lacks an incremental catalyst to drive the multiple higher. After taking a fresh look at the four key debates on apps, data mgmt and hardware and capital returns that we laid out six months ago, we are hard-pressed to find conviction in further upside to our ests/multiple assumptions over the next year. In particular, our fourth deep-dive customer survey on Fusion Apps indicates momentum is continuing to weaken as competitive drums beat louder, while Engineered Systems growth has faded more rapidly than we expected. Net, until we see signs of product and sales investments yielding stronger returns, ORCL looks fairly valued at ~12x NTM P/E, in line with EPS growth and approaching long-term averages.” Oracle Corporation closed on Wednesday at $34.56.