Strong cloud growth powers another earnings beat for Oracle, sending stock higher

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Oracle Corp.’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results elicited enthusiasm from Wall Street after it delivered profit and revenue that came in ahead of expectations, primarily thanks to its strong cloud growth.

The database firm delivered a sharp increase in cloud license and on-premises license revenue, plus moderate gains in its cloud services and license support revenue, sending its stock higher in extended trading.

For the fourth quarter, Oracle reported a net income of $3.2 billion, or $1.16 per share, compared with a profit of $4 billion one year ago. Earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation came to $1.54 per share, while revenue topped $11.84 billion, up 5% from a year earlier.

Wall Street had expected the company to report earnings of $1.37 per share on lower revenue of $11.66 billion. Oracle’s stock promptly rose more than 13% in after-hours trading, having fallen more than 4% earlier in the day during another big decline in the broader market.

Oracle also delivered its full-year fiscal 2022 results, posting revenue of $42.4 billion, up 5% from a year ago, generating an operating income of $10.9 billion.

Oracle’s revenue growth is being powered by an ongoing effort to push more of the company’s customers into the cloud. That effort is paying off, with Oracle’s cloud infrastructure business seeing sales grow by 36% in the quarter compared to one year ago.

That helped Oracle’s total cloud revenue to grow by 19% in the quarter, to $2.9 billion. Leading the way here was cloud license and on-premises license revenue, which rose by 22% from a year ago. The company also saw a 3% increase in cloud services and license support revenue, plus a similar jump in services.

A deeper look within Oracle’s cloud infrastructure segment, which competes with platforms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, shows encouraging growth across the board. Infrastructure cloud revenue rose 36%, while Fusion ERP Cloud revenue increased by 20%. NetSuite ERP Cloud sales jumped 27%.

Oracle Chief Executive Safra Catz (pictured) said in a statement that the company benefited from a “major increase in demand” for its cloud infrastructure offerings.

“We believe that this revenue growth spike indicates that our infrastructure business has now entered a hyper-growth phase,” Catz insisted. “Couple a high growth rate in our cloud infrastructure business with the newly acquired Cerner applications business — and Oracle finds itself in position to deliver stellar revenue growth over the next several quarters.”

Oracle closed on its $28.3 billion acquisition of the healthcare tech giant Cerner Corp. during the quarter. Oracle has big plans for the acquisition, with one goal being to integrate its Voice Digital Assistant product with Cerner’s software to help medical professionals access patient data more quickly.

“Cerner and Oracle together have all the technologies required to provide healthcare professionals with better information,” promised Oracle Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison. “Better information will fundamentally transform healthcare… lead to better patient outcomes, better public health policy, lower overall healthcare costs and a better quality of life.”

Also during the quarter, Oracle boosted its cloud infrastructure platform with an array of new cybersecurity features. That came shortly after it introduced a new generation of Exadata processors.

Charles King of Pund-IT Inc. told SiliconANGLE Oracle delivered encouraging results for both the quarter and fiscal 2022 and it’s all thanks to its cloud business growth. “Not surprisingly, Oracle executives feel highly optimistic about how the newly acquired Cerner will power new opportunities in healthcare records management and research,” King added. “Whether the effect will be as beneficial as Catz and Ellison say is unclear at this time, but it’s safe to say Oracle is pinning a lot of its hopes and ambitions on Cerner.”

Oracle’s earnings beat today was a big encouragement for investors, who traditionally switch focus to companies that can generate profit and cash during economic downturns. It even helped to offset lower-than-expected guidance for the next quarter. The company explained it’s likely to take a $100 million hit per quarter in fiscal 2023 from its suspension of services in Russia. As a result, Oracle is guiding for earnings of $1.04 to $1.08 per share, below the consensus estimate of $1.13.

Photo: Oracle PR/Flickr