24/7 Wall St.

Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) is out with its quarterly earnings report. The enterprise software leader reported $0.64 EPS and a 3% gain in sales to $9.1 billion in revenue. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.61 EPS and $9.03 billion in revenue. Oracle’s non-GAAP operating income was up 9% to $4.3 billion, and non-GAAP operating margin was 47%. The company even said that non-GAAP EPS would have been $0.01 higher without the impact of currencies.

Larry Ellison and friends showed that new software licenses and cloud subscriptions were up a combined 17% to $2.4 billion. Software license updates and product support revenues were up 7% to $4.3 billion. Hardware systems products revenues were $734 million.

The company also highlighted that its trailing twelve months of operating cash flow was $13.5 billion. It further stated that some $10.2 billion was returned to holders as it repurchased some 350 million Oracle shares over the same 12-month period.

We would consider the report somewhat incomplete until you get guidance in the conference call. For the existing quarter, analysts expect earnings of $0.66 EPS and $9.46 billion in revenue.

Without knowing what guidance will be, Oracle shares closed up 1.7% at $32.88 and just short of the $33.29 high of the last 52-week period. Now we have shares up at $33.60 in the after-hours session.

Mark that as a new 52-week high!

JON C. OGG