Oracle Stock Soared as Cerner Merger Completion Anticipated To Boost FQ4 Results, Cloud Performance in the Spotlight

Oracle Stock

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL)

On Monday, June 12th, after the market closes, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) plans to announce its financial results for the fourth quarter.

The average analyst forecast is for earnings per share of $1.58, up 2.6% year over year, on revenues of $13.73 trillion, up 16.0% year over year.

Over the last two years, ORCL has exceeded earnings per share, and sales forecasts 75% of the time.

In the last three months, earnings per share forecasts have been revised 23 times upwards and zero times downwards. There have been 9 positive adjustments and 11 negative changes to revenue forecasts.

The industry leader in cloud computing reported disappointing third-quarter statistics and a lackluster forecast in early March.

The purchase of Cerner, a provider of health information systems, was finalized in November 2022, and it is anticipated that this integration would contribute to an increase in both profit and revenue reported by ORCL for FQ4.

In an earnings preview for Seeking Alpha, writer Brian Gilmartin admitted that the Cerner merger had increased sales forecasts for Oracle stock. Still, he also noted that this increase delayed impacting EPS.

The outcomes of ORCL’s cloud efforts will likewise be studied intently. Brokerages like Guggenheim have pointed out the advantages of Oracle being a distant fourth in the cloud computing sector, behind Amazon Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google-parent Alphabet.

Zack’s research predicted in an earnings preview on Thursday that overall cloud, including Cerner, would increase from 51% to 53% at constant currency and from 49% to 51% in USD in the company’s upcoming fiscal fourth quarter of 2023.

Zacks predicts that in the soon-to-be-reported quarter, demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services and the company’s other cloud-based applications was boosted by “accelerated digital transformation,” “continued remote work,” and “mainstream adoption of the hybrid/flexible work model.”

Analysts on Wall Street recommend buying Oracle stock. 

Oracle stock is up 31.5% year to date (YTD), in line with the growth of other IT giants.

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