Oracle Earnings Show Weak IT and Enterprise Trends Likely to Continue

March 18, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

Oracle logoOracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) has now reported its earnings, and we expected this to be a make or break for enterprise and large-scale IT companies. The report was 5% operating earnings growth to $0.68 in earnings per share on 4% revenue growth to $9.3 billion. Thomson Reuters had estimates for the enterprise software leader of $0.70 in earnings per share and $9.36 billion in revenue.

Oracle said that cloud software subscriptions revenues rose by 24%, while its hardware systems products revenues were up by 8% to $725 million. New software licenses and cloud software subscriptions revenues rose by 4% to $2.4 billion, while software license updates and product support revenues were up by 5% to $4.6 billion.

Another measure followed is operating margins – Non-GAAP operating income was up 5% to $4.4 billion, and the non-GAAP operating margin was 47%. Oracle said that without the impact of currencies, operating earnings growth would have been 7% rather than 5%.

Oracle maintained its $0.12 dividend, which desperately needs to be raised to be more along the lines of other established technology giants. We would remind readers that Oracle trades at only 12-times next year’s earnings per share estimates, based upon 9.5% earnings growth.

After closing at $38.84, the consensus analyst target price was almost $39.50 and the 52-week range is $29.86 to $39.85. Also, keep in mind that Oracle’s market cap is almost $175 billion.

Oracle shares were weak on the soft top-line and soft bottom-line figures. The after-hours reaction is down some 5% at $36.75 so far. Until guidance is given, consider this unfinished business. For the next quarter, those estimates are $0.96 in earnings per share and $11.5 billion in sales.

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