Why Oracle Stock Popped Today
Key Points
Demand exceeds supply for Oracle's AI infrastructure.
The software colossus is quickly scaling capacity while maintaining impressive profit margins.
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Shares of Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) rallied on Wednesday, as investors applauded the tech titan's strong quarterly earnings report.
By the close of trading, Oracle's stock price was up more than 9%.
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AI-driven cloud growth
Oracle's revenue jumped 22% year over year to $17.2 billion in its fiscal 2026 third quarter, which ended on Feb. 28.
The gains were fueled by an 84% surge in the software giant's cloud infrastructure revenue to $4.9 billion. Artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure revenue soared 243%.
"Demand for AI infrastructure, both GPU and CPU, continues to exceed supply," CEO Clay Magouyrk said during a conference call with analysts.
Moreover, Oracle's profitability metrics helped to assuage investors' concerns that its rapid data center build-out would dent near-term earnings. The company's adjusted operating income increased 19% to $7.4 billion.
All told, Oracle's adjusted earnings leaped 21% to $1.79. That exceeded Wall Street's estimates, which had called for per-share profits of $1.69.
Plenty of room for expansion
Oracle projects revenue and adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 19% to 21% and 15% to 17%, respectively, in the fourth quarter.
Looking further ahead, management sees revenue rising to $90 billion in fiscal 2027, up from $67 billion in fiscal 2026.
"We are confident that the investments we make now in data centers, compute capacity, and customer relationships will only grow more valuable with time," Magouyrk said.
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Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Oracle. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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