Oracle (ORCL) ended the recent trading session at $175.06, demonstrating a -1.84% change from the preceding day's closing price. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.2%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.79%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.52%.
Heading into today, shares of the software maker had gained 14.67% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 8.24% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.15%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Oracle in its forthcoming earnings report. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.97, marking a 15.88% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $19.08 billion, reflecting a 19.99% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $7.45 per share and revenue of $67.21 billion. These totals would mark changes of +23.55% and +17.09%, respectively, from last year.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for Oracle. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.18% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. As of now, Oracle holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Oracle currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 23.94. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 16.24.
It's also important to note that ORCL currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.39. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Computer - Software industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.53.
The Computer - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 59, placing it within the top 25% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
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Oracle Corporation (ORCL): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).