By Aaron Ricadela - Dec 21, 2011 5:23 PM GMT+0700
Oracle Corp. (ORCL) dropped in German trading after the second-largest software maker reported sales and profit that missed analysts’ estimates, hurt by slower demand for databases, applications and computer servers.
Profit before some costs in the fiscal second quarter ended Nov. 30 was 54 cents a share, on revenue excluding certain items of $8.81 billion, the company said in a statement yesterday. Analysts had projected profit of 57 cents on sales of $9.23 billion, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, and other business-software companies are taking longer to close deals as companies gird for slow economic growth in the U.S. and the possibility of a recession in Europe next year, said Rick Sherlund, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. New software licenses, an indicator of future revenue, rose less than Sherlund projected, and sales of hardware acquired through the Sun Microsystems deal fell more than expected.
“The economy got a little harder for them,” Pat Walravens, an analyst at JMP Securities in San Francisco, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” “In that situation you need to manage your sales force a little more carefully. They were not doing that this quarter.” Walravens has a “market outperform” rating on Oracle shares.
Share Price Drop
The stock declined as much as 9.6 percent to the equivalent of $26.54 in German trading and was down 8.3 percent as of 10:40 a.m. in Frankfurt. Rival SAP AG (SAP), the biggest software maker, dropped as much as 4.1 percent to 40.78 euros.
Yesterday, Oracle tumbled as low as $26.10 in extended U.S. trading. Before the report, they had gained 1.9 percent to $29.17 at the close in New York. The stock has declined 6.8 percent this year. The company also said it will buy back as much as $5 billion in stock.
Sales excluding certain items in the current quarter, which ends in February, will increase 1 percent to 5 percent from a year earlier, co-President Safra Catz said on a conference call yesterday. On average, analysts were predicting sales growth of 7.4 percent to $9.46 billion. Profit before some costs will be 55 cents to 58 cents a share, compared with analysts’ average 59-cent estimate.
In the second quarter, new software license sales rose 2.5 percent to $2.05 billion, compared with the $2.28 billion Sherlund estimated in a Dec. 15 research note.
Sales of hardware obtained in last year’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems declined to $953 million, missing the $1.06 billion in revenue estimated by Sherlund, who is based in New York and has a “buy” rating on the shares.
Spending ‘Pullback’
Net income in the second quarter rose 17 percent to $2.19 billion, or 43 cents a share, Oracle said in the statement.
In the third quarter, software license sales will be unchanged to 10 percent higher, and hardware sales will decline 5 percent to 15 percent, Catz said.
“This is indicative of some pullback in general enterprise IT spending,” said Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in Des Peres, Missouri. Technology spending next year could be constrained among European companies, government customers and banks, said Olson, who rates Oracle shares “buy.” “They’re going to feel the brunt of that.”
Customers are adding more layers of management approval for technology purchases, including some chief executive officers getting involved, Catz said yesterday. That’s slowing down the closing of contracts, she said. In response, Oracle has added new “deal management” procedures to monitor signings and make sure the necessary approvals are in place.
Oracle’s Acquisitions
“We’ll have a much more normal next quarter,” she said.
The effect of the declining value of the euro against the dollar also is hurting sales. Excluding the effect of currency fluctuations, revenue this quarter would increase 3 percent to 7 percent, Catz said.
Jason Maynard, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, said in a Dec. 19 report that corporate spending on hardware and software may fall 8 percent in the first quarter, a steeper drop than the average 7.3 percent average decline during the quarter in the past 10 years.
To help blunt the impact of a possible slowdown in software sales growth, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has snapped up more than 70 companies in a $40 billion buying spree to add programs that help large corporations manage human resources and operations. The company has been using the acquisitions to build up its cloud business, meant to appeal to customers that are seeking to save money by letting them access computing power over the Internet.
Public Cloud
On Oct. 24, Oracle said it would buy online customer- service software company RightNow Technologies Inc. for $1.5 billion. Earlier that month, the company unveiled its Public Cloud service, which will run its database software and more than 100 new applications called Fusion in its data centers for customers.
Oracle, the largest database-software maker, is using the Sun acquisition to develop computer servers -- including high- end Exadata and Exalogic machines -- that run its database and applications. Still, its lower-priced systems using Intel Corp. chips are losing ground to competitors.
The company’s share of the worldwide server market declined to 6 percent in the third quarter, from 6.5 percent a year earlier, while Dell Inc. gained, market researcher IDC said.
Ellison told analysts on yesterday’s call that Oracle’s hardware business could expand by the fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in May. Sales of Exadata, Exalogic and other high-end systems could reach $1 billion annually by the end of the fiscal year.
“Then we plan to double those sales again next fiscal year,” he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco at aricadela@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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