Oracle shares fell more than 4% in after-hours trading Monday as another quarterly revenue miss raised investor concerns over the company’s shift to cloud computing.
For the first quarter, the database software giant earned an adjusted 71 cents per share on revenue of $9.19 billion, up 1% on the year-ago period. Analysts had expected earnings of 69 cents on revenue of $9.28 billion.
It was Oracle’s second revenue miss in the past four quarters and seventh in the past 13 quarters.
Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz emphasized that unadjusted earnings per share grew 19% in constant currency. “That strong earnings-per-share growth rate increases my confidence that we will deliver on another fiscal year of double-digit non-GAAP earnings per share growth,” she said.
But Oracle stock fell on quarterly results for the fifth straight time, finishing the extended session down 4.6% at $49.18.
“On a constant currency basis, Oracle can argue that it met expectations, but this market has no patience for any misses from tech companies, no matter how minor or how explainable the miss,” Wedbush Securities managing director Steve Koenig told CNBC.
As Investor’s Business Daily reports, the company has been “moving away from a traditional model of licensing and maintenance to a subscription-based cloud-computing business. Meanwhile, it’s trying to sustain profit margins that have been under pressure.”
First-quarter revenue from cloud services and license support rose 3.2% to $6.6 billion, accounting for 72% of total revenue, but analysts had expected $6.68 billion in revenue.
The cloud license and on-premises license segment generated revenue of $867 million, compared with the $865 million consensus estimate among analysts.
Oracle’s other chief executive, Mark Hurd, said its enterprise resource planning products are gaining market share at the expense of SAP and Workday ERP systems. “The Oracle Fusion ERP customer count is now nearly 5,500, while the NetSuite ERP customer count is over 15,000,” he noted.
Catz forecast adjusted second-quarter earnings of 78 cents to 80 cents a share, while analysts surveyed by FactSet expect 79 cents a share.
