STOCKS TO WATCH: Oracle, Sanmina and Verity

Oracle is always among the most heavily traded stocks but it should be even more active Thursday ahead of its much-anticipated second-quarter results.

First Call Corp. consensus expects it to earn 10 cents a share on sales of between $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion.

Oracle shares fell $2.38 to $28.38 Wednesday.

Analysts will be paying close attention to its application sales, which improved 42 percent last quarter, as well as its operating margins.

The stock was trading at $46.44 back in August before falling below $25 a share in November.

Twenty-eight of the 33 analysts tracking the stock maintain either a “buy” or “strong buy” rating.

The electronic manufacturing services provider will be on the move after setting a 2-for-1 stock split after the bell Wednesday.

Company officials said the split is payable in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend to shareholders of record on Dec. 18.

Its shares fell $11.69 to $73.38 ahead of the announcement.

Following the split there will be approximately 305 million shares outstanding.

Verity is poised for a nice rally Thursday after it easily topped analysts’ estimates in its second quarter and raised its sales and earnings estimates for fiscal 2001.

In the quarter, Verity posted a profit of $8.2 million, or 23 cents a share, on sales of $34.5 million.

First Call Corp. consensus expected it to earn 20 cents a share in the quarter.

Its shares closed off 69 cents to $18.63 ahead of the earnings report before moving up to $20.43 in after-hours trading.

The $34.5 million in sales represents a 107 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it pocketed $1.1 million, or 3 cents a share, on sales of $16.7 million.

More impressive, company officials raised their fiscal 2001 earnings estimate to between 89 cents to 94 cents a share. It also boosted its sales estimate to between $144.4 million to $146.6 million, up 50 percent to 53 percent from the $96.1 million it recorded in fiscal 2000.