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Assessing Oracle (ORCL) Stock Ahead of Q4 Earnings Release

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Oracle (ORCL - Free Report) is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth-quarter 2024 results on Jun 11.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, total revenues, including Cerner, are expected to grow 4% to 6%. Total revenues, excluding Cerner, are expected to grow in the range of 6-8%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is currently pegged at $14.56 billion, suggesting growth of 5.2% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

ORCL’s non-GAAP earnings per share are expected to be flat to down 2% in the range of $1.62-$1.66. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $1.64 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days. The figure indicates a 1.8% decline from the year-ago period.

Top-line growth is expected to have benefited from Oracle’s strong cloud business that has been riding on robust demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Autonomous Database solutions.

The cloud-based applications, encompassing NetSuite Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Fusion ERP, are witnessing strong adoption, bolstering Oracle's position in the rapidly evolving enterprise software landscape.

Oracle's Gen 2 Cloud architecture is delivering superior performance at a lower cost, leveraging high-bandwidth and low-latency RDMA networks, thereby offering a compelling value proposition to customers. With its continued investment in expanding its cloud infrastructure footprint, Oracle is strategically positioning itself for sustained growth in the dynamic and fiercely competitive software industry.

Oracle Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Oracle Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Oracle Corporation price-eps-surprise | Oracle Corporation Quote

Oracle Bolsters Growth With Expanding Partner Ecosystem

Oracle is accelerating its growth momentum by forging strategic partnerships with the likes of Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) . These collaborations are not only expanding Oracle's global footprint but also shaping its product offerings to meet the evolving demands of enterprises across diverse sectors.

Oracle’s expanding partner ecosystem has played a pivotal role in securing prominent clients, including the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, ONO Pharmaceutical, and Nokia. This burgeoning clientele is expected to have contributed significantly to Oracle's top-line growth in the to-be-reported quarter.

Oracle has collaborated with Microsoft to meet the increasing demand for its Database@Azure across the globe. The partnership aims to expand Oracle's Database@Azure to five additional regions, bringing the total planned multi-cloud availability footprint to 15 regions worldwide.
Oracle's collaboration with NVIDIA has been extended to provide sovereign AI solutions to customers worldwide. By combining NVIDIA's full-stack AI platform with Oracle's Enterprise AI, which is deployable across various Oracle Cloud Infrastructure ("OCI") environments, customers gain greater control over operations, location and security, enabling them to meet data sovereignty requirements.

Oracle plans to incorporate NVIDIA's Grace Blackwell computing platform across OCI Supercluster and OCI Compute, significantly enhancing performance for AI models

The company’s partnerships are likely to have aided customer growth, thereby driving cloud services and license revenues in the fiscal fourth quarter despite stiff competition from industry giants like Salesforce and Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) .

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 17.1% year to date compared with the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s growth of 19.3%.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

ORCL's AI Prowess Poised to Propel Cloud & Licensing Businesses

At the forefront of Oracle’s AI initiatives is the company's Autonomous Database, a self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing database management system powered by machine learning algorithms. By automating routine tasks and optimizing performance, the Autonomous Database promises to streamline database operations, reducing costs and freeing up IT resources for more strategic endeavors.

Oracle's AI-infused cloud offerings extend beyond databases. The company's AI-powered Cloud Applications suite, encompassing ERP, Human Capital Management (HCM), and Customer Experience (CX) solutions, aims to enhance operational efficiency, decision-making and customer engagement for businesses across industries.

Oracle and its subsidiary, NetSuite, have been making considerable advancements in AI. Some advancements made in the to-be-reported quarter include solutions like NetSuite’s Analytics Warehouse Multi-Instance Connector and Text Enhance, as well as Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence.

In the to-be-reported quarter, Oracle announced a partnership with Palantir (PLTR - Free Report) to offer secure cloud and AI solutions to businesses and governments worldwide.

By combining ORCL's distributed cloud and AI infrastructure with PLTR's advanced AI platforms, organizations can better leverage their data to enhance efficiency, meet sovereignty requirements and stay ahead of adversaries.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ORCL’s fiscal fourth-quarter 2024 cloud services and license revenues is pegged at $11.77 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 25.7%.

Conclusion

As investors eagerly await fiscal fourth-quarter 2024 earnings report, Oracle’s ability to execute its cloud strategy, maintain its enterprise software dominance in the highly competitive cloud computing market, and deliver shareholder value will be closely scrutinized.

With the potential for both rewards and risks, investors must carefully weigh these factors and make informed decisions aligning with their investment objectives and risk tolerance.

Moreover, investors should wait for a better entry point for Oracle given a Value Score of D that reflects stretched valuation in the near term.

Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar.

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