Oracle Tops Profit Target
Oracle shares jumped to a new 52-week high Friday morning after the company said solid database sales pushed fiscal second-quarter earnings ahead of analysts' expectations.
The world's second-largest software company (ORCL) said it earned 28 cents a share, 4 cents more than analysts predicted. That's up from 19 cents a share in the same quarter last year.
"It was a blockbuster quarter. It was the first time since the company melted down (last year) that the company fired on all cylinders," said Edward Jones analyst Art Russell, who rates the stock a "strong buy."
Shares rose 2 3/16 to 37 1/8, a new high for the year, in trading Friday morning.
The company said revenue rose 27 percent to $2.1 billion from $1.6 billion last year. Database sales increased 25 percent, stronger than the 17 percent expectation from analysts. Application growth of 35 percent was roughly in line with Wall Street projections."Our database revenue growth accelerated as Oracle has become the database of choice for Internet commerce," Chief Executive Larry Ellison said in a press release.
The strong performance bore out optimism on the database titan from Edward Jones analyst Art Russell, who rates the stock a "strong buy."
Russell, who serves primarily retail investors, equates the Internet phenomena with the Gold Rush about a century and a half ago. At the time, he said, there were two ways to make money: Dig around in hopes of striking it rich, or sell the pick-axes and blue jeans to the gold hunters.
"Oracle is selling the picks and maps" for the Internet gold rush, Russell added. Last month, the company launched Oracle8i, which it billed as "the world's first Internet database."
Nine of the 10 largest e-commerce sites on the Web use Oracle software.
Written By Brenon Daly