Published - December 13, 2022 @ 11:16 AM (EET)

‍

On Monday, shares of Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) climbed as much as 4% after the software company posted second-quarter revenue nearly $200 million above its own guidance.

Revenue, up 18% from a year ago, was $12.28 billion compared to the company projections in the range of 15% to 17%.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, average analysts' estimates were $12 billion.  

Despite softer demand for information technology services in a challenging economic environment, profit, which excludes some items, was $1.21 a share, including a 9 cents hit from currency fluctuations.

EARNINGS DETAILS

Revenue for the highly watched cloud segment Oracle has been trying to expand climbed 43% to $3.8 billion in the fiscal second quarter and produced 45% year-over-year growth in the previous quarter.

Moreover, Cerner, the healthcare software company Oracle acquired for $28 billion in June, contributed $1.5 billion in revenue.

Citing strength in cloud infrastructure and cloud-based applications, Oracle CEO Safra Catz said, "We really have it coming from all areas."

Further fueling the cloud effort, Oracle anticipates a better-than-expected $65 billion in annual revenue by the fiscal year 2026.

In the quarter, the company spent $2.4 billion toward capital expenditures, with a primary focus on data centers needed to meet demand, Catz said on a conference call after the results.

The CEO said she anticipates investing at that level for "the next few quarters."

Elsewhere, Net Income came in at $1.74 billion.  In the year-ago quarter, a net loss of $1.25 billion came in connection to a judgment settlement tied to Mark Hurd, who,  alongside Catz, previously served as co-CEO. 

In the period, Oracle's Fusion application sales rose 23%, and revenue from its NetSuite enterprise planning tools increased 25%, compared with 33% and 27% in the last quarter, respectively.

NOW WHAT

Recently, Oracle has been one of the best-performing tech stocks, with shares jumping 33% since the end of September compared to a 12% rise in the S&P 500 Information Technology Index.

The company also announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.32 per share.

‍

‍