• Oracle’s stock is up more than 2% early Tuesday ahead of the tech giant’s report on its fiscal fourth quarter which ended in May.
  • The quarter coincided with the escalation of the COVID-19 crisis, but Wall Street is cautiously upbeat, giving the tech giant’s shares a lift.
  • Some analysts point to Oracle’s bid to expand its presence in the cloud, which has paid off recently with deals with Zoom and 8X8.
  • Analysts expect Oracle to report a profit of $1.16 a share on revenue of $10.69 billion.

  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories

Oracle is set to report results for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in May, on Tuesday. While it’s typically the tech giant’s strongest quarter, that likely won’t be the case this year as it coincided with the escalation of the COVID-19 crisis.

But some analysts are cautiously optimistic that the tech giant’s report will reveal some bright spots amid the gloom. In fact, Oracle shares have bounced back from a deep plunge, which was part of a broad selloff, in early March.

The stock was rallying more than 2% in late morning trades on Tuesday.

One reason is that Wall Street is looking beyond the May quarter, and focusing on Oracle's longer-term prospects.

"We think investors will be less focused on the fourth-quarter numbers in an environment we already know is challenging," UBS analyst Jennifer Swanson Lowe told analysts in a note.

Instead, she said, investors are focused on trends in Oracle's key business units, led by its cloud applications and cloud database offerings. Investors are also interested in "whether management still sees potential revenue growth acceleration" in its next fiscal year.

Oracle has been aggressively pushing to strengthen its position in the cloud, where it lags stronger rivals led by Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

It has seized openings during the COVID-19 crisis, signing key cloud deals with Zoom and 8X8.

MacQuarie analyst Sarah Hindlian-Bower pointed to Oracle's cloud offensive in a note to clients, saying Oracle continues "to punch away at the cloud opportunity, migrating customers … and landing new deals."

Analysts expect Oracle to report a profit of $1.16 a share on revenue of $10.69 billion.

Got a tip about Oracle or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected], message him on Twitter @benpimentel or send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Claim your 20% discount on an annual subscription to BI Prime by clicking here.