Oracle Tops Expectations, New Software Licenses Up

Oracle (ORCL) reported first quarter earnings that topped expectations as new software licenses were in line with estimates. Revenue, however, was light.

In a statement Thursday, Oracle said it reported earnings of $1.1 billion, or 21 cents a share (preview). Excluding charges, Oracle reported earnings of $1.5 billion, or 29 cents a share. Revenue was up 18 percent from a year ago to $5.3 billion. Wall Street was looking for earnings of 27 cents a share excluding items on revenue of $5.42 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Oracle will provide its outlook on its conference call. Sam will be back with live coverage.

New software license revenue was up 14 percent to $1.2 billion. CEO Larry Ellison touted Oracle’s database market share, which came in at 49 percent according to Gartner.

By the numbers for the first quarter:

• New software license revenue was $1.24 billion, up 14 percent from $1.08 billion a year ago. Software license updates and support revenue was $2.93 billion, up from $2.38 billion a year ago.
• Revenue from the Americas was $2.68 billion, up from $2.37 billion a year ago. Europe, Middle East and Africa had revenue of $1.83 billion, up from $1.53 billion a year ago. Asia Pacific revenue was $814 million, up from $624 million a year ago.
• Applications revenue was $1.37 billion with database and middleware revenue of $2.8 billion.
• Oracle ended with 85,188 employees.