American software giant Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is back in the spotlight on Wall Street after projecting strong future revenue growth, fueled mainly by new cloud contracts, despite its latest quarterly results falling short of expectations.
The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.47 per share, just below the $1.48 forecast, while revenue came in at $14.93 billion versus estimates of $15.04 billion. Still, revenue grew 12% year-over-year, with net income steady at $2.93 billion.
What grabbed investors’ attention, however, was Oracle’s bullish outlook for its cloud infrastructure division, where it competes directly with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
The company expects revenue in that business to surge 77% this fiscal year to $18 billion, up from $10 billion a year earlier. Looking further ahead, Oracle projects $32 billion by fiscal 2027, and longer-term targets of $73 billion, $114 billion, and $144 billion over the following three years.
On the back of these ambitious projections, ORCL shares skyrocketed in after-hours trading, jumping more than 28% to $310. For context, the stock had closed the regular session at $241, already up 1.2% on the day.
Wall Street bullish on ORCL stock
Adding to the optimism, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill raised his price target on Oracle to $360 from $270 while maintaining a ‘Buy’ rating. He pointed to accelerating demand in artificial intelligence and cloud services, highlighting Oracle’s remaining performance obligations, cloud infrastructure revenue, and multicloud database momentum as key drivers.
Meanwhile, Wall Street consensus remains upbeat. According to TipRanks, 34 analysts assign Oracle a ‘Moderate Buy’ rating.
The average 12-month price target stands at $263.93, representing a potential 9.3% upside from current levels. Forecasts diverge, with the most bullish target at $400 and the most cautious at $195.
Featured image via Shutterstock
Source: https://finbold.com/wall-street-analyst-updates-oracles-stock-price/