| Subject: Oracle's Q2 profits slips but beats estimates |
Author:
techman
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 17:58:37 12/18/02 Wed
Oracle's Q2 profits slips but beats estimates
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. (AP) — Oracle (ORCL)on Wednesday reported that its sales slump continued in its latest quarter, but the slide wasn't as steep as analysts feared, enabling the software maker to beat earnings expectations.
Thecompany earned $534.9 million, or 10 cents a share, the three months ended Nov. 30, a 3% decrease from the $549.5 million, or 10 cents, at the same time last year.
The results topped the consensus estimate of 8 cents a share among analysts polled by Thomson First Call.
The company reported the results after the stock market closed Wednesday. Oracle's shares fell 39 cents to close at $10.63 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, then gained 33 cents in extended trading.
Oracle's revenue totaled $2.31 billion, a 3% decline from $2.38 billion in last year's period. It marked the seventh consecutive quarter that Oracle's revenue had fallen from the year before.
But with the erosion becoming less severe, Oracle is optimistic about the company's chances of reviving sales growth during the current quarter ending in February, said chief financial officer Jeff Henley.
"We feel things are starting to bottom out, and we think there will be a modest improvement for the economy and technology spending," Henley told reporters in a conference call. "We think the worst is over."
The remarks echo the sentiments of many other Silicon Valley executives, who believe the tech sector is about to slowly climb out of the sales crater created by the dot-com implosion of two years ago.
Oracle's prolonged slump has cut so deeply into the company's sales that it will be easy to improve on the prior year's results.
The company made some strides in its latest quarter.
Although the company's overall sales of new software licenses fell 7% to $764.9 million in the quarter, the performance in its main database business rose slightly. The company's revenue from new database licenses and updates was $1.15 billion, a 4% increase from last year.
But Oracle's sales of software for running business applications continued to fall. Oracle posted application sales of $251.7 million, a 14% decrease from last year.
With sales still weak, Oracle trimmed its work force to help boost earnings. The company eliminated 851 jobs, or about 2% of its work force, between August and November, lowering its payroll to 40,645 employees.
Most of the cuts affected Oracle's consulting services, Henley said.
For the first half of its current fiscal year, Oracle earned $877.6 million, or 16 cents a share on revenue of $4.3 billion. At the same time last year, Oracle had earned $1.06 billion, or 18 cents a share, on revenue of $4.6 billion.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 