Oracle banks on Cerner for cloud boost after mixed third-quarter results
7:20 pm Thursday, March 09th, 2023
(Reuters) -Oracle Corp narrowly missed quarterly revenue estimates on Thursday, but the company remained bullish on demand for its cloud software following the recent acquisition of electronic medical records firm Cerner.
Oracle has been beefing up its offerings with a focus on subscriptions to win large customers and better compete in the booming cloud services market dominated by tech heavyweights Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc.
On a conference call with analysts, company executives said Oracle expects to sign more healthcare customers over the next few quarters.
Cloud revenue jumped 45% to $4.1 billion in the third quarter.
However, while hybrid work has helped growth, a rally in the U.S. dollar has also hit the bottom-lines of multinational firms such as Oracle, with the company’s net income in the third quarter falling to $1.89 billion from $2.32 billion a year earlier.
Oracle earned $1.22 per share on revenue of $12.39 billion in the quarter ended Feb. 28, while analysts were expecting a profit of $1.20 per share on revenue of $12.42 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
The mixed results sent shares down over 3% in trading after the bell.
The company forecast fourth-quarter revenue to grow between 15% and 17%, compared with analysts’ estimate of 16.2%.
Oracle also expects adjusted profit per share in the range of $1.56 to $1.60, above market expectations of $1.46.
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
