We recently published a list of Analyst Says These 10 AI Stocks Have More Upside Potential. Since Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) ranks 10th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
King Lip, BakerAvenue Wealth Management’s chief strategist, recently talked to CNBC about the latest decline in tech stocks and market rotation. Lip said that he’s still bullish on tech stocks and a single event does not show a trend. However, the cause of decline in tech stocks last week was the lower-than-expected CPI data which caused investors to do some “profit taking” and invest in names that can benefit “more” from lower interest rates, according to the analyst. Lip noted that small-cap stocks, real estate stocks, among others, gained ground on the back of this trend.
However, Lip has high expectations from the upcoming earnings reports from tech companies. He also said that July has been one of the strongest months for tech stocks. Lip, however, said that major tech companies cannot go on to post record gains and their returns are expected to “fall in line with historical returns.”
Lip thinks the economy is entering a “Goldilocks scenario” where growth is steady but not “hot enough” to cause inflation. He reiterated his view that he expects strong earnings growth this year and in 2025, which could be a tailwind for stocks.
Asked what would cause earnings growth of tech companies, Lip said a lot of that comes down to efficient management and strong cash piles these companies have. He also said “slightly” lower interest rates could also be a tailwind for the economy.
Since Lip is bullish on tech stocks and believes major AI companies still have upside potential, we decided to take a look at the top names in his portfolio. These are the top holdings of King Lip, according to CNBC. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors:
Oracle is one of the top AI stocks in King Lip’s portfolio.
Dan Ives of Wedbush is also bullish on the stock following the AI revolution and its trickle-down effects. Ives named Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) among the stocks he thinks could benefit from the AI wave.
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) earlier this month posted weak fiscal Q4 results, but the stock remained steady after the company said it signed multiple AI deals with leading horses in the industry. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) said it reached a deal with OpenAI and Microsoft to extend Azure Al platform to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to provide additional capacity for OpenAl. Oracle also revealed a partnership with Google after which Google Cloud will offer Oracle Cloud Infrastructure database services and high-speed network interconnect.
Despite the weak fiscal Q4 results, Oracle’s Cloud business was strong. Cloud infrastructure (IaaS) revenue jumped 42% year over year. For fiscal first quarter, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) expects its revenue to rise by 6% to 8% in constant currency, while adjusted EPS growth is expected in the range of 11% and 15%. One of the metrics in Oracle’s Q4 report that impressed the Street was Remaining Performance Obligations (RPOs), which surged 44% YoY in the period. Management expects 39% of this amount to come in the next twelve months. Oracle’s Cloud is exposed to the IaaS market, which is projected to grow to $738.11 billion by 2032, according to some estimates. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) management said the company is building data centers and analysts believe the company’s automated OCI services will grow amid rising demand. Given Oracle’s partnerships with major AI players and its dominance in the niche OCI market, it’s forward P/E ratio of 22.03 looks attractive when compared to peers.
ClearBridge Value Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Likewise, cloud computing software company Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) reported strong backlog growth and signed a new client in OpenAI, which intends to use Oracle’s cloud infrastructure to train its AI models. The company also received tailwinds from its announced partnership with Google’s Cloud Platform (GCP) to build Oracle’s cloud infrastructure directly into GCP, which we believe will help accelerate the growth of Oracle’s cloud database services.”
Overall, Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) ranks 10th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Analyst Says These 10 AI Stocks Have More Upside Potential. While we acknowledge the potential of Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ORCL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
