Investing For Growth
Investing For Growth
(FOOL GLOBAL WIRE) LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 21): After six losing sessions in a row, the Nasdaq finally got a little relief. Who really knows how much of the recent drop is the index is related to options expiration and how much is simply a very healthy correction after the index lapped the other major indices? No one probably, and it doesn't really matter, so let's look at the feature story for the day.
Oracle Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NASDAQ:ORCL)") else Response.Write("(NASDAQ:ORCL)") end if %> posted better-than-expected earnings and was rewarded handsomely today, picking up 9%. Considering the ubiquitous fears regarding this earnings season for the tech stocks, Oracle's solid earnings may bolster some of the market against the total apocalypse which has been forecast by the Wise lately.
For the quarter ended May 31, Oracle earned $0.40 a share versus $0.27 in the year-ago period. The number beat the analysts' consensus expectations by 5%, which prompted a round of upgrades from them today. The two strongest areas were applications license revenue growth of 73% and database license growth of 49%.
CEO Lawrence Ellison made clear his delight with the numbers: "This final quarter represents the culmination of an incredible year throughout which Oracle has steadily gained market share. The companies that will succeed in the software industry will have to deliver comprehensive families of products, which are easy to deploy and are based on a tightly integrated, broad technology offering."
Street reaction was quick, naturally. Because of the bizarre accounting practices on Wall Street, the analysts will get credit for a move in the stock today as if they had forecast the earnings ahead of time. Short-term hindsight gets counted as foresight on Wall Street. Go figure.
Anyway, EVEREN Securities adjusted its fiscal year 1997 estimates up a penny to $1.28. It also reiterated its Outperform rating and increased its price target to $41 for the next six months and $51 over the next eighteen months.
Hambrecht & Quist also raised fiscal 1997 numbers, from $1.24 to $1.30, and maintained a Buy rating on Oracle.
And finally, SoundView Financial also raised its earnings estimates to $1.30 from $1.22 and kept its ratings at Near-Term Hold and Long-Term Buy.
I'll be updating the IFG Current list this weekend, Fools, but it may be Sunday before I get all the data compiled. Snail mail being what it is, I don't yet have Value Line's edition for this week. I should be able to track it down tomorrow, however, and get all of the files updated by Sunday afternoon. Enjoy the weekend.
Transmitted: 6/21/96 | ||||||||
INVESTING FOR GROWTH MODEL (6/21/96) | ||||||||
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