UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Resumes Oracle with Buy, $34 PT; EXA Franchise Outlook

Stifel Nicolaus resumes its coverage on Oracle ORCL with a Buy rating and a price target of $34 on expectations that the OXA franchise will shine. Stifel Nicolaus notes, "Exa franchise to help turn around hardware business. While we believe demand for ORCL's engineered systems has been strong, we believe it's being marred by ORCL's rationalization of its commodity hardware. Although investors are increasingly skeptical about ORCL's ability to turn this business around, we are confident the bleed off of the business will be more than offset by strong uptake of its Exa franchise by 2Q or 3Q13. We believe ORCL's hardware business will be a growth story in FY13 and beyond." ORCL closed at $29.71 on Thursday.