Oracle Rises on Solid Earnings

Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) reported fiscal fourth-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday. The company said that it had $0.81 in earnings per share (EPS) on $10.59 billion in revenue. There were consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $0.82 in EPS on $10.47 billion in revenue. The same period from last year had $0.78 in EPS on $10.71 billion in revenue.

Short-term deferred revenues were $7.7 billion, up 6% in U.S. dollars and up 7% in constant currency compared with a year ago.

Cloud plus On-Premise Software revenues totaled $8.4 billion, which was flat in U.S. dollars and up 2% in constant currency. Cloud software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) revenues were $690 million, up 66% in U.S. dollars and up 68% in constant currency. Total Cloud revenues, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), were $859 million, up 49% in U.S. dollars and up 51% in constant currency.

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On the books, Oracle’s cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $36.1 billion at the end of the quarter, versus $54.4 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year.

Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, commented:

Fourth quarter SaaS and PaaS revenue growth accelerated to 68% in constant currency, significantly higher than my guidance. SaaS and PaaS gross margins continued to improve throughout the year, exiting FY16 at 56%. Bookings in Q4 were also very strong enabling us to raise our guidance for Q1 SaaS and PaaS revenue growth, which we now expect to be between 75% and 80%.

Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle CEO, added:

We added more than 1,600 new SaaS customers and more than 2,000 new PaaS customers in Q4, In Fusion ERP alone, we added more than 800 new cloud customers. Today, Oracle has nearly 2,600 Fusion ERP customers in the Oracle Public Cloud — that’s ten-times more cloud ERP customers than Workday.

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Shares of Oracle closed Thursday up 0.5% at $38.64, with a consensus analyst price target of $43.86 and a 52-week trading range of $33.13 to $43.10. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was up 2.7% at $39.70 in the after-hours trading session.