PREVIEW: Oracle shares fall with broader market; results due after the bell

Shares of Oracle ORCL.N are down nearly 5% in afternoon trading and hit their lowest level since September on Mon as tech shares led a selloff in U.S. stocks, with Oracle due to report Q3 results after the closing bell

Analysts expect qtrly rev for the computer software co to rise to $14.39 bln from $13.28 bln a yr ago, and they expect EPS of $1.49/shr vs $1.41 a yr ago, according to LSEG

Jefferies analysts wrote in a recent note that expectations for the quarter are "high post an in-line F1H and upbeat FY25 outlook, implying F2H growth acceleration."

They wrote that for stronger growth, Oracle must sustain high levels of cloud computing demand, increase capacity and "convert AI backlog into AI rev."

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI and Oracle were eyeing Nvidia NVDA.O chips for their Stargate site. Stargate is a joint venture by Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank

Analyst recommendations on ORCL include 25 "strong buy" or "buy" ratings, 14 "hold" ratings and no "sell" or "strong sell" ratings, per LSEG

ORCL shares down 11.5% YTD compared with a more than 5% decline in the S&P 500 .SPX over that period