The stock of Oracle (ORCL) is down nearly 10% after the software company reported revenue that missed Wall Street forecasts.
The company announced earnings per share (EPS) of $1.34 U.S. compared to $1.32 U.S. that had been expected.
However, revenue in what was Oracle’s fiscal second quarter came in at $12.94 billion U.S. versus $13.05 billion U.S. that had been expected among analysts. Revenue grew 5% year-over-year in the quarter.
Looking ahead, Oracle said that it expects earnings of $1.35 U.S. to $1.39 U.S. a share and 6% to 8% revenue growth in the current quarter.
Analysts had been expecting $1.37 U.S. in earnings and $13.34 billion U.S. in revenue, implying 7.6% revenue growth.
For fiscal Q2, Oracle reported revenue that came up short in three of the company’s operating segments.
But the company stressed that revenue in its cloud infrastructure unit reached $1.60 billion during the quarter, up 52% from a year ago. Clients included Elon Musk’s new start-up company xAI, among others.
During the quarter, Oracle said it picked up cloud business from rival Microsoft (MSFT)
and announced that its database software will be available on Microsoft’s Azure public cloud going forward.
Oracle also bought privately held Australian company Next Technik, which makes field service software, for an undisclosed amount in fiscal Q2.
Prior to today (Dec. 12), the stock of Oracle had gained 38% this year to trade at $115.13 U.S. per share.
