24/7 Wall St.

Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday. Despite growing from last year, this company took a step back when it failed to reach analysts’ expectations.

24/7 Wall St. has included some highlights from the earnings report, as well as what analysts are saying after the fact.

This networking giant said it had $0.55 in earnings per share (EPS) and $8.61 billion in revenue. Consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters had called for $0.58 in EPS on revenue of $8.7 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.53 and $8.45 billion in revenue.

In the first quarter alone, Oracle added more than 750 new Software as a Service (SaaS) customers, including 344 new SaaS Fusion Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) customers. For those keeping tabs, that’s more ERP customers than Workday has sold in its history.

According to management, Oracle is on track to sell more than $2 billion of SaaS and Platform as a Service (PaaS) annually recurring revenue. In consecutive years, Oracle has sold more SaaS and PaaS than any cloud services provider.

Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, was overly positive on the company saying:

Our Cloud business plus our On-Premise Software business grew 7% in constant currency in the first quarter, on a non-GAAP basis. The overall top-line growth of our two strategic businesses was driven by non-GAAP SaaS and PaaS revenue growing 82% in constant currency, substantially outperforming our guidance. As our SaaS and PaaS business continues its rapid growth, we expect its gross margins to climb from 62% this quarter toward our 80% target.

A few analysts weighed in on Oracle after the company reported earnings:

• Societe Generale has a Buy rating with a $46 price target.
• SunTrust Banks has a Buy rating with a $48 price target.
• Rosenblatt Securities has a Buy rating and a $48 price target.
• D.A. Davidson reiterated a Buy rating.
• Cowen reiterated an Outperform rating with a $46 price target.
• Wedbush reiterated a Neutral rating with a $41 price target.
• Morgan Stanley reiterated a Hold rating with a $41 price target.
• RBC Capital Markets reiterated an Outperform rating.
• Nomura has a Buy rating and a $45 price target.
• William Blair reiterated a Market Perform rating.
• BMO Capital Markets has an Outperform rating with a $46 price target.

Shares of Oracle closed Friday at $38.92, with a consensus analyst price target of $44.18 and a 52-week trading range of $33.13 to $42.00. In early trading indications Monday, the stock was up 0.7% at $39.20.