Oracle Reports Slower-Than-Expected Sales
By LAWRENCE M. FISHER
SAN FRANCISCO -- Shares in the Oracle Corporation dropped sharply in after-hours trading Thursday after the company reported slower than anticipated software sales. Oracle reported third-quarter earnings that essentially matched analysts' expectations, but revenues from both data base and applications software fell short.
Oracle executives said revenues were reduced by a short quarter and the spillover of a number of large pending sales into the fourth quarter.
Oracle reported its results after the market close. Its shares closed at $36.875, down $1.0625 in Nasdaq trading, but dropped as low as $30.875 in after-hours trading. Analysts said that the slowdown in revenues was partly offset by reduced expenses, but that Oracle needed to see sales growth from new products.
For the quarter, which ended Feb. 28, Oracle reported earnings of $293 million, or 20 cents a diluted share, up 36 percent, compared with $215 million, or 14 cents a share, in the comparable period a year ago.
Revenues increased 19 percent, to $2.079 billion, from $1.749 billion in the third quarter of the 1998 fiscal year. Earnings per share have been adjusted to reflect a 3-for-2 stock split last month.
"Revenues were light in the quarter," said Rick Sherlund, an analyst with Goldman, Sachs. He noted that application sales grew by just 5 percent in the quarter, down from 19 percent in the second quarter; data base sales grew by 10 percent, down from 26 percent in the second quarter. "They have a pretty good pipeline of products, but disappointing revenue growth," he said.
In an unusual step, Oracle featured Lawrence J. Ellison, the company's co-founder, chairman and chief executive, in its conference call with securities analysts Thursday. Passing quickly over the third-quarter financial results, Mr. Ellison concentrated on the company's Internet-enabled version of its core data base program, Oracle 8i, as well as new software to automate sales and manage customer and vendor relationships. He predicted that Oracle would pass Siebel Systems Inc. in sales-force automation software.
"We think we are going to grow faster than all of our secular competition in this pre-Y2K year," Mr. Ellison said. He said the company's sales of large enterprise software would grow faster than those of SAP, Baan or Peoplesoft; its data base sales faster than those of I.B.M. or Microsoft, and procurement software faster than Ariba's.
"We're nothing but Net, 100 percent Internet," he said. "We're the only company, the only one where every single report, every interaction is through an Internet browser." |
