Oracle Corp. surged to a record high after the company said its cloud-computing business will continue its rapid growth in the coming fiscal year.
Cloud sales gained 54% in the fiscal fourth quarter to $4.4 billion, after a 45% jump in the previous period, Oracle said Monday in a statement. In the fiscal year ending May 2024, cloud revenue should increase at least as much as in the year that just ended, Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz said on a conference call after the results.
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Oracle has focused on expanding its cloud infrastructure business to more forcefully compete with market leaders Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which have seen recent slowdowns. A boom in generative AI, which needs tremendous computing power, is boosting demand for Oracle’s cloud services, executives said. Generative AI startup Cohere said last week that Oracle was among its investors in a $270 million funding round.
Shares gained as much as 6.5% Tuesday in New York to $123.99. Oracle has rallied 42% in the year to Monday’s close, compared with the 32% rise in the iShares expanded software ETF.
“We see shares maintaining their recent positive momentum as the narrative of growing cloud momentum, partly fueled by AI demand, remains intact,” Raimo Lenschow, a Barclays analyst, wrote after the results. John DiFucci, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities, said the continued strength in the unit is abnormal given the current economic environment.
Read the full article here by Brody Ford, Advisor Perspectives.
