Software Sales Boost Oracle

BOSTON (Reuters)—Oracle Corp said on Wednesday that quarterly profit rose 35 percent as new software sales soared, beating expectations at a time when investors are nervous that IT spending is slowing, and its shares climbed 4 percent.

The world’s No. 2 publicly held software maker reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $1.3 billion, or 25 cents per share, compared with $967 million, or 18 cents a year earlier.

New software sales rose 38 percent from a year earlier to $1.7 billion, led by a 63 percent increase in business management applications. Database and middleware sales rose 28 percent.

Oracle said it had profit excluding items of 31 cents per share, beating analyst forecasts of 27 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

“It’s quite a significant beat,” said Bert Hochfeld, managing director of Hochfeld Independent Research Group.

“The real issue for Oracle is going to be guidance,” he said. “I think many people knew or intimated that the quarter was going to be strong with regards to revenue.”

Oracle Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz was scheduled to issue the company’s forecast for the current quarter during a conference call later on Wednesday.

Revenue climbed 28 percent to $5.3 billion, above the Reuters Estimates average forecast of $5.04 billion.

Oracle shares rose to $21.60 in after-hours trade, up from their Nasdaq close of $20.76.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle, Daisuke Wakabayashi and Susan Zeidler; Editing by Gary Hill)