Technology

Oracle’s results are getting a boost from longer recurring contracts. CEO Safra Catz says on a call with analysts that the company is trading one-time, non-recurring license revenue for larger “strategic customer commitments.” Those deals, which have surged because of strong demand for AI products and training large language models, stretch multiple years, she said, and are expected to lead to accelerating revenue growth. Oracle announces two big wins, one with Google Cloud and one with Microsoft and OpenAI, and those large contracts appear to be showing up in the company’s remaining performance obligations, a proxy for backlog. RPO was up 44% year-on-year in 4Q. Shares rise 9.7% post-market.

Oracle’s AI momentum is making longer-term financial targets look meager. CEO Safra Catz says on a call with analysts that she is still “firmly committed” to FY26 targets for revenue, margins and earnings. “However, given our strong bookings results, I believe some of these goals might prove to be too conservative given our momentum,” she says. And Oracle seems to be prepared to spend big to keep momentum going: Catz says capital expenditures this fiscal year will likely be double that of the previous fiscal year. Shares rise 8.8% to $134.75 after-hours.

After arrangements to connect its cloud customers with Google and Microsoft, Oracle says that a deal with Amazon Web Services could be next. CTO Larry Ellison says on a call with analysts that the company believes all clouds should be interconnected, making it easier for customers who use multiple cloud services to use them all at once. Oracle already has connections with Microsoft’s Azure and on Tuesday announces a new partnership with Google. Ellison says the company would “love to do the same thing with AWS,” adding that he is optimistic that interconnection will become the status quo. Shares rise 9.3% to $135.35 after-hours.

We up our 12-month target to $150 from $142, on a P/E of 22x our CY25 EPS estimate of $6.80, above historical/below peers. We keep our FY25 (May) EPS at $6.29 and start FY26 at $7.08. ORCL posts May-Q EPS of $1.63 vs. $1.67, missing the $1.65 consensus. Sales rose 3%, as 20% growth from cloud services was largely offset by declines in licenses, hardware, and services. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) grew +42%, now 14% of sales (run rate doubled in the last seven Qs) and is benefiting from large-scale deals (+30 AI sales contracts for over $12.5B; Open AI deal to train ChatGPT adds credibility). RPO rose an impressive 44% to $98B (+29% in Feb-Q), driving its backlog and will allow ORCL to grow +10% in FY25. Applications decelerated to 10% but Cerner headwinds to ease. The Google Cloud partnership is poised to aid database services revenue, which could add another

Oracle is one of the most mentioned companies in the U.S. across all news items in the past 12 hours, according to Factiva data. The cloud-software provider reported fourth-quarter results that fell short of Wall Street expectations, but it also touted major artificial-intelligence contracts and said it expects demand to keep accelerating. Oracle shares rise nearly 10% in premarket trading. Dow Jones & Co. owns Factiva.

Oracle’s (ORCL) solid growth driven by strong cloud performance, resulting in an increase in quarter-over-quarter remaining performance obligations and backlog in Q4, BofA Securities said in a note. “Oracle delivered solid Q4 results, with cloud strength driving incremental backlog/RPO of $18 billion, driven by strength in multi year hosting deals,” BofA said, adding that total cloud subscription growth of 20% was below guidance, but Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s 43% growth remained solid, though slightly decelerated. “However, with outsized growth coming from the hardware intensive OCI business, the economics in Oracle’s business are likely to come down over time,” BofA said. Oracle plans to double its capital expenditure in 2025, representing 25% of revenue, up from 13% in 2024. Despite reaffirming 2026 targets, concerns persist regarding margin erosion and low research and development investment. BofA maintained its neutral rating while raising its price target to $155 from $144 to reflect improving topline

Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) shares were climbing on Wednesday after the company reported its quarterly results. The results came amid an exciting earnings season. Here are some key analyst takeaways. Piper Sandler On Oracle Analyst Brent Bracelin maintained an Overweight rating, while raising the price target from $140 to $150. Oracle’s reported quarterly revenue miss of $242 million “takes a back seat to leading indicators like RPO metrics,” given its backlog strength, especially the new contract signings of $32 billion in just six months, Bracelin said in a note. RPO growth accelerated from the previous quarter’s 29% to 44% year-on-year to $98 billion, “driven by robust new AI contract signings,” the analyst stated, while adding that the company’s cRPO growth remained at 15% for the second consecutive quarter. “Non-GAAP operating margin improved q/q to 46.7% from 43.6%,” he further wrote. Stifel On Oracle Analyst Brad Reback reiterated a Hold rating while

Oracle’s (ORCL) “strong finish” to its fiscal 2024, with cloud bookings results exceeding investor expectations, supports future growth, Oppenheimer said in a note to clients Wednesday. The database management company reported late Tuesday Q4 remaining performance obligation, or RPO, rose 44% year over year to $98 billion, while Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS grew by 42% year over year. Oppenheimer said it sees “Oracle as a long-term beneficiary of the software industry secular trends,” which include digital transformation, cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence. These trends are expected to drive “revenue growth and operating leverage for the company,” it added. Oracle, however, reported earnings per share and revenue that missed analysts’ expectations, likely raising concerns that the company’s fiscal 2025 guidance is “aggressive,” Oppenheimer said. The company guided its fiscal 2025 revenue to grow double digits and the growth rate to increase each quarter, as well as its IaaS