Oracle’s foray into cloud computing continued to gain momentum resulting in growth in revenue for the fourth quarter in a row. Total sales for the enterprise software maker easily exceeded estimates by analysts and this sent the shares of Oracle surging to a record high on Wednesday.
“We continue to experience rapid adoption of the Oracle Cloud. This cloud hyper-growth is expanding our operating margins, and we expect earnings per share growth to accelerate in fiscal 2018,” said SafraCatz, the co-Chief Executive Officer of Oracle in a statement.
Software licenses
The financial results are an indication that shifting to the cloud and allowing clients to access services offered by Oracle without having to install applications onsite is on a strong footing. This is also an indication that Oracle will be able to compete against such rivals as Microsoft and Salesforce.
Enterprise applications
Some of the applications that were most in demand from Oracle clients including those that assisted enterprises in such areas as financials, customer relationship management and human resources. Combined these applications recorded a jump in earnings of close to 70%.
Oracle’s adjusted revenue rose by 3% to reach a figure of $10.9 billion against a projected figure of $10.5 billion in the quarter that ended on May 31. Excluding some costs, profit came in at 89 cents per share against the estimated 78 cents a share. Net income, on the other hand, increased by 15% to reach a figure of $3.2 billion.
Double digit growth
In an earnings call with investors and analysts, Catz revealed that in the present quarter she expected adjusted revenue to increase by between 4% and 6%. Catz also estimated that adjusted earnings would come in at between 59 cents and 61 cents a share. Oracle’s co-chief executive officer also added that the enterprise software maker’s growth in earnings per share would be in the double digit levels.
During the earnings call executives from Oracle also took the opportunity to tout the growing interest of clients in the software maker’s cloud offerings. In May, the enterprise software company disclosed that the telecommunications giants AT&T had inked an agreement which would see it transfer thousands of databases to the new Oracle platforms.
