The post-earnings sell-off in Oracle (ORCL) is overdone and a clear-cut buying opportunity, Jim Cramer said Tuesday. Shares of the Club holding tumbled more than 12% Tuesday after the business software maker reported mixed fiscal first-quarter results Monday . Oracle’s earnings-per-share topped expectations in the three months ended Aug. 31, but revenues came up slightly short. Management’s sales growth guidance for the current quarter also was light. Still, Oracle delivered robust growth in cloud-computing services, making the stock’s slide Tuesday “one of the greatest overreactions I’ve ever seen,” according to Jim. “I know the stock is going to be down at the end of the day … but we’ve been there. This is a buy,” he added. The Club would add to our position Tuesday, if not for trading restrictions that prevent us from doing so. Oracle, which we added to the portfolio on Aug. 15 , has fallen below our cost basis of $115.80 per share, adding to our desire to capitalize on Tuesday’s weakness. “It’s killing me that we can’t buy,” Jim said, referring to Club rules that prevent the Charitable Trust from trading any stock Jim mentions on CNBC television for the three subsequent trading sessions. A combination of factors is contributing to the magnitude of Tuesday’s sell-off, including elevated expectations in recent weeks after two major Wall Street firms upgraded Oracle shares to buy-equivalent ratings. UBS and Barclays have both touted growth ahead for Oracle’s cloud-computing business, due in large part to further adoption of artificial-intelligence capabilities – a view we also share. Against this increasingly bullish backdrop, Oracle shares rose about 9% over the two past weeks – compared with a 2.5% advance in the S & P 500 – to stretch its year-to-date gains to 55%. For better or worse, that’s the kind of setup that leads to selling and profit-taking in the wake of an imperfect quarter. ORCL YTD mountain Oracle’s year-to-date stock performance. The…
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