Good news, STan.
Oracle's 3rd-Qtr Profit and Sales Rise, Ending Slump
03/18 17:15
By Ashley Gross
Redwood City, California, March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp., the world's largest database-software company, said third- quarter profit rose 12 percent amid the first sales gain in two years. The shares fell as software sales missed some estimates.
quote.bloomberg.com
Net income rose to $571.3 million, or 11 cents a share, in the quarter ended Feb. 28, from $508 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier, Oracle said in a statement. Sales rose 2.4 percent to $2.31 billion from $2.25 billion.
Oracle's sales began to slump in 2001, as dot-com customers shut down and more-established companies slashed computer-related spending amid declining profits. The company's shares have risen 13 percent this year on optimism that corporate customers are starting to spend again. Sales of new software licenses in the quarter declined 4.4 percent to $743 million.
``It's still a pretty tough marketplace,'' said Bill Batcheller of National City Investment Management Co., which manages $27 billion, including 3.78 million Oracle shares.
Oracle shares slipped 35 cents to $11.90 in extended trading after the earnings report. They fell 10 cents to $12.25 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The Redwood City, California-based company was expected to earn 10 cents a share on sales of $2.31 billion, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Financial. |
