Why Oracle Stock Is Climbing Higher Today

Oracle Corp ORCL shares are trading higher Tuesday after the company reported financial results and provided positive commentary on revenue growth expectations for the coming quarters. Multiple analysts also raised price targets on the stock following the company's quarterly results.

Q1 Results: Oracle said fiscal first-quarter revenue jumped 18% year-over-year to $11.45 billion, which missed average analyst estimates of $11.46 billion slightly, according to Benzinga Pro. The company reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.03 per share, which missed average analyst estimates of $1.07 per share. 

Cloud services and license support revenues were up 14% year-over-year, while cloud license and on-premise license revenues were up 11%.

"Even without Cerner, our total revenue grew 8% in constant currency driven by Oracle's rapidly growing applications and infrastructure cloud businesses. These two cloud businesses now account for more than 30% of our total revenue," said Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle.

"As our cloud businesses become a larger-and-larger percentage of our overall business, we expect our constant currency organic revenue growth rate to hit double-digits with a corresponding increase in earnings per share. Cerner will also positively impact revenue and earnings per share growth in the coming quarters as we fully integrate Cerner into Oracle and benefit from the resulting cost efficiencies," Catz added.

Oracle's board declared a quarterly dividend of 32 cents per share. The dividend will be paid on Oct. 25 to stockholders of record as of Oct. 12.

Analyst Assessment: 

• Jefferies analyst Brent Thill maintained Oracle with a Hold rating and raised the price target from $80 to $85.
• JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy maintained Oracle with an Overweight rating and raised the price target from $82 to $84.
• BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman maintained Oracle with a Market Perform rating and raised the price target from $86 to $90.

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ORCL Price Action: Oracle has a 52-week high of $89.58 and a 52-week low of $63.76.

The stock was up 2.23% at $78.80 at the time of publication.

Photo: courtesy of Oracle.