Oracle Stumbles Despite Cloud Growth
After Oracle reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday, this networking giant's shares slipped in the after-hours session.
Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday. This networking giant’s shares slipped in the after-hours session on Thursday. The company 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.
According to management, Oracle is on track to sell more than $2 billion of Software as a Service (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.
In the first quarter alone, Oracle added more than 750 new 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.
On the books, Oracle’s cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $68.4 billion, up from $56.1 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year.
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Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, commented:
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.
Shares of Oracle closed most recently at $40.86, but dropped 4% to 39.60 in after-hours trading. The consensus analyst price target is $44.29, and the 52-week trading range is $33.13 to $42.00.
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
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