Oracle's stock jumps as company returns to growth

Key Points

• Oracle increased revenue in the quarter and topped estimates after sales declined in the prior period.
• President Trump said last month that Oracle could "handle" part of social-media app TikTok.

Oracle shares rose as much as 6% in extended trading on Thursday after the software maker reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and quarterly guidance that were better than analysts had expected.

Here's how the company performed:

• Earnings: 93 cents per share, adjusted, vs. 86 cents per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• Revenue: $9.37 billion, vs. $9.19 billion as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

Revenue grew 2% on an annualized basis in the quarter, which ended on Aug. 31, compared with the 6.3% decline in the prior period. Business was "only briefly interrupted" by the coronavirus pandemic, Safra Catz told analysts on a conference call on Thursday.

In Oracle's cloud services and license support segment, which produces the majority of revenue, sales increased 2% to $6.95 billion, just above the $6.93 billion consensus among analysts polled by FactSet. Oracle touted new cloud business from McDonald's and Xactly.

The cloud license and on-premise license segment came in at $886 million, up 9% and higher than the FactSet consensus estimate of $749 million.

In the quarter Oracle announced managed cloud regions of data center equipment and services that can be located in customers' data centers for a monthly fee. And in August President Trump said Oracle could "handle" part of video-sharing app TikTok.

The comments came after CNBC reported that Oracle was in talks to acquire TikTok's U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand operations from Chinese company ByteDance. Microsoft has also been in talks over a possible TikTok deal. Catz told analysts not to ask about TikTok on the call. 

"While the consumer-focused, short-form mobile video app seems far removed from Oracle's enterprise software business, Oracle's billionaire founder and Chairman Larry Ellison has a history of opportunistic acquisitions — especially when he feels an asset is underappreciated or offers great strategic advantages for Oracle," Patrick Walravens and Joe Goodwins of JMP wrote in an Aug. 19. report. They have the equivalent of a hold rating on the stock.

"Examples include when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2009 and, in a personnel context, when Mr. Ellison hired former HP CEO Mark Hurd as co-president a month after HP's board of directors had forced Mr. Hurd's resignation," the analysts wrote.

With respect to fiscal second-quarter guidance, Oracle sees 98 cents to $1.02 in adjusted earnings per share and 1% to 3% revenue growth. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had been looking for 94 cents in adjusted earnings per share and $9.59 billion in revenue, which would imply roughly no revenue growth. The company did not issue full-year guidance.

Oracle shares are up almost 8% since the start of the year, while the S&P 500 index has gained about 3%.

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