Oracle shares jumped 12% and headed for a record close

Oracle shares jumped more than 12% in intraday trading on Tuesday and are on track to hit a record close, a day after the company reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations.

Shares were trading at more than $127 at midday Tuesday, above the previous closing high of $126.71 set on Sept. 11, 2023. They are also on pace for the biggest gain since Dec. 10, 2021, when Oracle shares closed with 15.6%.

Oracle reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.41, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.38 per share, according to LSEG, formerly Refinitiv. Revenue of $13.28 billion was slightly below analysts’ estimate of $13.3 billion.

The company’s cloud services and license support segment, its biggest business, reported a 12 percent increase in sales to $9.96 billion, eclipsing analysts’ expectations of $9.94 billion, according to StreetAccount.

Deutsche Bank raised its price target on Oracle shares to $150 from $135, noting that CEO Safra Katz reiterated guidance for fiscal 2026 and strong cloud infrastructure results.

Analysts who maintain a buy rating on Oracle shares wrote in a note on Tuesday that Oracle’s cloud infrastructure “drives the equity narrative and about which we are more confident than ever in the demand picture.”

Analysts at UBS raised their price target on Oracle shares to $150 from $130 and reiterated a buy rating on the stock on Tuesday, noting that they were “encouraged by the top-line turnaround, OCI growth, AI backlog and the outlook, that large core database businesses could benefit in 2024/2025 from AI-driven cloud migration.”

Analysts at Bernstein Research, who have the equivalent of a buy rating on Oracle shares, raised their price target to $159 from $147. They cited management comments that supply continued to outpace demand and wrote on Tuesday that the results “allayed some of the growth concerns that have emerged over the past two quarters.”

— CNBC’s Kif Lesswing and Jordan Novett contributed to this report.