Oracle’s (NYSE: ORCL) third-quarter (Q3) earnings report, published on March 10, unleashed a deluge of positive rating and price target updates from some of Wall Street’s biggest analyst firms.
Indeed, as many as 14 prominent analysts issued new estimates on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 11, with the tone being, almost universally, bullish.
Specifically, among the updates, only two firms rated Oracle stock as ‘Neutral’: Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and its analyst, Keith Weiss, and RBC Capital and its Rishi Jaluria.
Despite the ‘Hold’ ranking, both experts set their 12-month price targets above where Oracle was trading ahead of the explosive extended session rally that saw ORCL shares soar 9.72% from $149.40 at the Tuesday closing bell to $163.92 at press time on March 11.
When the forecasts were assigned on March 10, Weiss estimated the technology giant’s equity is headed toward $213 and Jaluria to $160.
Analysts lower Oracle stock price target, confirm ‘Buy’ ratings
Elsewhere, some of the firms that gave a ‘Buy’ rating also issued curious price targets.
Specifically, JPMorgan’s (NYSE: JPM) Mark Murphy unveiled that he now expects a rally to $210 and not to $230 as before, Gabriela Borges of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) abandoned $240 and forecasted $228, and Piper Sandler’s Billy Fitzsimmons downgraded his ORCL stock price target from $240 to $210.
The biggest downward revision – and the only such note issued on March 10 and not March 11 – came from Robert Oliver, an analyst at Robert W. Baird, whose forecast went down from $300 to $215.
Most bullish Oracle stock price targets for the next 12 months
Still, there have been multiple bullish revisions and confirmations of previous, sky-high price targets for Oracle shares.
On March 11, Barclays’ Raimo Lenschow opined that ORCL stock is not going to rally to $230 in the next 12 months but to $240, and Brent Thill from Jefferies gave up on the moderately bearish – at least when measured against the latest close and the press time price – $149.4 and instead forecasted a rocketing to $320.
The most bullish unchanged 12-month Oracle stock price target was, however, confirmed on March 11 by Guggenheim analyst John Difucci, who estimates ORCL equity will rise 167.74% from its latest close and 144.02% from its press time price and hit $400.
Wall Street sets Oracle stock price target for the next 12 months
Zooming out, Wall Street is generally optimistic about the technology giant and rates it, on average, as a ‘Strong Buy’, while forecasting a 12-month rally to $260.07, per the data Finbold retrieved from the stock analysis platform TipRanks on March 11.
Why Oracle stock is soaring
Lastly, Oracle’s actual financial results – unveiled after the closing bell on March 10 – offer a strong demonstration for why ORCL stock is up 9.72% in the extended session and why Wall Street reacted with such vehement positivity.
The company announced it achieved 22% growth compared to the same quarter of the previous year, while also accelerating the cloud infrastructure revenue growth from the previous 68% to 84%.
Similarly, Oracle’s revenue came in at $17.19 billion when $16.91 billion was expected and earnings per share (EPS) stood at $1.79 – $1.70 was forecasted.
Why Oracle stock price rally might not last
Still, there remains some room for caution, as also seen among the Wall Street experts who interpreted the technology firm’s results as a reason to be ‘Neutral’ and not bullish on ORCL equity.
For example, the prominent technology journalist and critic of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, Ed Zitron, noted that Oracle’s pattern of expenditure shown in the documentation might be odd.
He noted that the indication is that the firm is either getting significant prepayments and is funneling them into capital expenditure, or is burning $2.26 of capex for every $1 of operating income for an estimated free cash flow of negative $23.5 billion.
Notably, Zitron previously estimated that, along with Coreweave (NASDAQ: CRWV), whose business he overall considers lackluster, Oracle is the most likely major company to collapse once the AI boom starts turning into an AI bust.
He also noted that the company’s industry agreements are notably more binding than those of many other players in the sector, putting it in greater danger whenever there are adverse developments.
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