By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 26th, 2024
Oracle (ORCL) stock is down after the enterprise-software giant posted revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter that fell short of both the company’s guidance and Wall Street estimates.
American multinational computer technology corporation Oracle Corporation (MYSE: ORCL) shares fell in the extended session Tuesday after the software company’s revenue went out with its earnings that were a bit disappointing among the investors. At the company, they said the coronavirus outbreak had a big impact. The news had a negative effect on Oracle stock.
Chief Executive Safra Catz stated:
“We are now at a point where our growing businesses are now larger than our declining businesses and this favorable shift will inevitably drive revenue acceleration going forward.”
However, this ‘return to growth’ could get to be a toss-up when we speak of the current quarter. Catz noted she expects adjusted fiscal first-quarter earnings of 84 cents to 88 cents a share on revenue with revenue that she is not sure will they be rising or falling – that could mean revenue could vary from $9.13 billion to $9.31 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet said they estimate earnings of 85 cents a share on revenue of $9.05 billion.
Oracle Net Income $3.11B
Oracle also reported its earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter. The company’s net income, therefore, was $3.11 billion, or 99 cents a share, compared with $1.07 a share in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were $1.20 a share, compared with $1.16 a share in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $10.44 billion from $11.14 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had predicted earnings of $1.15 a share on revenue of $10.61 billion. Oracle predicted adjusted earnings of $1.20 to $1.28 a share on revenue of $10.92 billion to $11.36 billion already in March.
In an official statement, Catz said:
“Oracle’s overall business did remarkably well considering the pandemic, but our results would have been even better except for customers in the hardest-hit industries that we serve, such as hospitality, retail and transportation, postponing some of their purchases.”
She added that as countries “begin reopening their economies, many of these discussions have already resumed. Since these were not lost to competitors, we believe that most of this business will ultimately be booked, and while some customers have deferred projects, we’re also rapidly building new pipelines with customers that are moving their on-premise workloads to the cloud.”
On the other hand, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill stood by his hold rating and a $55 price target on the company’s shares. In a note following the earnings release, Thill added he sees Oracle’s revenue as “underwhelming in the seasonally strong” fourth quarter.
Thill also noted he was looking at Oracle’s results “against a backdrop of a highly supportive software spending environment as reflective of share losses” to competitors like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN).
Still Mostly ‘Hold’ Ratings on Oracle Stock
According to FactSet data of the overall number of 31 analysts who cover Oracle, 10 have buy or overweight ratings, 20 have hold ratings, and one has a sell rating, with an average price target of $52.54. Meanwhile, the ATH for Oracle stock was at $57.54.
At the time of writing in teh pre-market, Oracle stock was falling 2.55% to $53.20. It’s interesting to note that yesterday, ORCL stock closed at $54.59 with a 2.52% increase. The market cap is $172.15 billion.