Oracle beats expectations as sales, earnings dip

From CNET News.com: Oracle announced on Tuesday lower fourth-quarter sales and earnings but was encouraged as results beat expectations.

For the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, which ended May 31, the database giant earned $1.9 billion, or 38 cents a share, versus $2 billion, or 39 cents, a year earlier. Sales fell 5 percent to $6.9 billion, compared with $7.2 billion a year ago. However, Wall Street had been predicting revenue of only $6.47 billion.

Oracle noted in its report that results were hurt by the lower value of foreign currencies versus the U.S. dollar. Without that impact, fourth-quarter income would have grown 9 percent to 42 cents a share.

The company was also pleased with its non-GAAP results, which discount certain nonrecurring costs.

"We executed substantially better than we expected on both the top and bottom line for the quarter," Oracle CFO Jeff Epstein said in a statement. "We grew Q4 non-GAAP operating margins by a faster than expected 240 basis points to over 51 percent. That helped us generate $7.7 billion in free cash flow for fiscal 2009."

For the full year, earnings per share rose 3 percent over the previous year to $1.09, while total net income inched up 1 percent to $5.5 billion. Revenue in 2009 hit $23 billion versus $22 billion for the preceding year.

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