Bill Peters
“Both of our strategic cloud businesses are bigger and growing faster. I’m here.
After-hours shares rose Monday after IT and cloud infrastructure provider Oracle reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. The company is well-positioned for an increasingly AI-dominated future, aided by skyrocketing cloud revenue, executives said.
With AI plans dominating debate within the tech industry, the company didn’t hesitate to name its AI collaborators during its earnings call with Wall Street analysts.
Executives spoke of chip maker Nvidia, which uses Oracle’s (ORCL) cloud platform for AI development and is working with Oracle to build massive AI computers with thousands of graphics processing units. brought out. And co-founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison said after pulling away from more than a dozen AI development companies that he said were Oracle customers, the company’s overall AI customers were “more than $2 billion recently. signed an agreement to purchase cloud capacity for
Oracle is launching an AI-powered product aimed at helping HR professionals and manufacturers, and is looking to expand the machine learning capabilities of its software. From JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER), and Skechers USA Inc. (SKX), many companies are using Oracle’s cloud technology more extensively.
Oracle posted fourth-quarter net income of $3.32 billion, or $1.19 per share, compared with net income of $3.19 billion, or $1.16 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue increased 17% from his $11.84 billion in the same period last year to $13.84 billion.
Excluding stock-based compensation, amortization and other charges, Oracle (ORCL) earnings per share were $1.67, compared with $1.54 a year ago.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Oracle to report adjusted earnings of $1.58 per share and revenue of $13.74 billion.
Oracle also announced a quarterly cash dividend of 40 cents per share. Revenue from Oracle’s cloud software and infrastructure services increased 54% during the quarter.
“Both of our strategic cloud businesses are bigger and growing faster,” CEO Safra Catz said in a statement. “This bodes well for an even stronger year in 2024.”
The company said on a conference call that it expects first-quarter revenue to grow 8% to 10% and adjusted first-quarter earnings per share of $1.12 to $1.16, compared to FactSet’s forecast of $1.15. dollar) said.
Oracle shares (ORCL) rose 3.5% in after-hours trading on Monday. Shares rose 5.8% to a record high of $116.43 to close regular trading.
Analysts surged shares of Oracle’s cloud business (which faces fears of a tight tech budget for its IT department amid rising economic concerns over inflation) and other tech companies ahead of the earnings call. I was paying attention to the AI potential of the company that raised it. . This year, more executives inside and outside the tech industry are speaking more about AI at earnings calls, hoping for similar support from investors.
Earlier Monday, Wolfe Research upgraded Oracle, saying the company’s cloud business could double its market share by 2025 on the back of “architectural advantages, partnerships” and generative AI. .
Oracle shares have risen 81.7% over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 Index rose 15.7% over the period.
-Bill Peters
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(Closed) Dow Jones Correspondence
June 12-23, 1948 Eastern Standard Time
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