Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) shares are up more than 5% year-to-date in 2023, and investors will be watching to see if the cloud computing giant can go even higher when it reports earnings after the bell Thursday.
Analysts expect earnings of $1.20 per share for the period ended February 28, which would be an increase from $1.13 in the year-ago quarter. Revenue is expected to be $12.43 billion, up nearly 20% from a year earlier.
Three months ago, Oracle beat expectations thanks in no small part to growth in its cloud and license services segments. Another beat could be in store, according to the firm Trefis.
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“Notably, the services segment [a year ago] benefited from the acquisition of healthcare software company Cerner,” the firm said. “We expect the Q3 results to be on similar lines.”
That optimism is also tied to the cloud services sector as a whole. Investors have watched as Salesforce recently beat expectations and saw its shares surge close to 15%.
Josh Brown of the firm Ritholtz Wealth Management is in that camp, backing Oracle even relative to its peers.
“I think there's going to be a technical breakout,” Brown said last week on CNBC. The stock could hit “$92, $93 a share and never look back,” he said.
Oracle shares traded 1.6% lower at $88.30 on Tuesday afternoon.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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