Oracle Beats Sales and Profit Forecast

Elena
27 Jun, 2007
New York City

The software giant said that net earnings rose to $1.6 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared with $1.3 billion, or 24 cents per share a year earlier. Quarterly revenues jumped 20% to $5.8 billion. Excluding charges, it would have earned 37 cents a share, exceeding analyst forecast for operating earnings per share at 35 cents and revenues at $5.61 billion. Oracle Corp. added 1.3% in pre-market trading.

[R]8:00AM Oracle reported better-than-forecast Q4 profit and sales.[/R]

Oracle ((ORCL)), software giant, announced after the closing bell Thursday a better-than-expected 23% earnings increase in Q4. The company said that net earnings rose to $1.6 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared with $1.3 billion, or 24 cents per share a year earlier. Quarterly revenues jumped 20% to $5.8 billion. Excluding charges, it would have earned 37 cents a share, exceeding analyst forecast for operating earnings per share at 35 cents and revenues at $5.61 billion.

The business software maker also said that sales are expected to accelerate in the current quarter. Oracle has spent $25 billion buying other software makers. The strategy of bundling these products together and offering a comprehensive suite of software has proved successful, leading to bigger deals and a larger number of customers. Shares of Oracle Corp. added 1.3% in pre-market trading Wednesday.


[R]7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex ends 70 points lower on weak auto and metal shares.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished 70.02 points lower, or 0.48%, at 14,431.06.

The market-breadth turned negative in the latter part of trading. As 1,245 stocks advanced, 1,388 stocks declined and 64 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, only 10 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,685 crore, compared to Rs 4,706 crore on Tuesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 9,375 crore, slightly lower than Rs 9,557 crore on Tuesday.

Economic news

The rupee declined for the fourth straight day on talks that financial inflows from abroad will shrink after foreign companies had completed buying new shares offers that drew money from overseas. The rupee fell 0.2% to 41.005 against the dollar in morning trading in Mumbai.

Air India Ltd., the biggest carrier overseas, opened freighter operations with two Airbus SAS planes to meet the increasing demand for transporting goods in India, the second-fastest in growth major economy.

Trading highlights

GMR Infrastructure was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 297 crore followed by India Infoline and new issue Nelcast.

Advancers

It stocks advanced supported by a weaker rupee. Satyam Computers spurted 2.6% to Rs 468, and led the gainers while Wipro advanced 0.2% to Rs 510, TCS gained 0.9% to Rs 1,133 and Infosys Technologies added 0.7% to Rs 1,936. TCS announced on Tuesday, June 26 2007, that it had struck an agreement with Scuderia Ferrari to provide the complete software to the Formula one cars of the Italian carmaker.

Auto stocks traded mixed. Hero Honda advanced 0.9% to Rs 676 and Bajaj Auto gained nearly 0.2% to Rs 2,131. Other gainers included Grasim up 0.3% to Rs 2,503 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements, 0.3% higher to Rs 116.

Decliners

NTPC led the decliners, down 2.1% to Rs 150. Reliance Communications declined 2% to Rs 515 and Reliance Energy lost also 2% to Rs 578. Aluminium and copper large-cap Hindalco Industries declined 0.6% to Rs 170 on a decline in global metal prices on Tuesday, June 26 2007.

Unlike Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors declined 1.8% to Rs 672 and Maruti Udyog lost 0.7% to Rs 752.

Ranbaxy Laboratories lost 1.4% to Rs 343 and index heavy Reliance Industries lost 0.3% to Rs 1,698. HDFC Bank and Tata Steel lost over 1% each to Rs 1,091 and Rs 596, respectively.


[R]7:30AM European markets decline Wednesday on weak Northern Rock, Sacyr Vallehermoso.[/R]

European markets declined on Wednesday. By mid-day, Frankfurt Xetra Dax fell 0.8% to 7,796.86, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.6% to 5,915.36 and London FTSE 100 slid 0.7% to 6,512.1. National benchmarks fell today in all of the 17 western European markets that were open.

Advancers

Banca Popolare di Milano Scrl surged 4.5%. The northern Italian lender failed to approve changes to its company rules that would have allowed the planned takeover of Banca Popolare dell''Emilia Romagna Scrl to take place

Gaz de France, the operator of biggest natural-gas network in Europe, rallied 1.8%. The French government could approve in coming days a long-planned merger between Gaz de France and Suez.

Decliners

Northern Rock plummeted more than 10%. Deutsche Bank AG, the biggest bank in Germany, and Axa SA, the second-largest insurer in Europe, also tracked the decline. Deutsche Bank lost 1.6%. UBS AG, the biggest bank by assets in Europe, declined 1.4%. Axa fell 1.3%, and Allianz, the largest insurer in Europe, dropped 1.6%.

Sacyr Vallehermoso fell 7.4%. The Spanish builder seeking to acquire French competitor Eiffage SA broke stock-market rules in an attempt to take control of the company and must make a fresh takeover bid.

Commodities

Gold for immediate delivery climbed $1.60, or 0.3%, to $642.50 an ounce after earlier trading at $639.50, the lowest since March 14. Silver increased 0.5 cent to $12.255 an ounce.

Platinum declined for a third consecutive day in London on speculation wage talks will avert a strike in South Africa. Platinum for immediate delivery dropped $1, or 0.1%, to $1,266.50 an ounce and palladium rose $1.50, or 0.4%, to $367.50 an ounce.

Crude oil declined, trading below $68 a barrel in New York, on expectations that U.S. gasoline supplies rose for an eighth straight week. Crude oil for August delivery fell to $67.35 a barrel, a decline of 42 cents, in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude oil for August settlement fell as low as $70.01 a barrel, a decline of 16 cents on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Currencies

The euro slipped Wednesday against the U.S. dollar. The euro declined slightly to $1.3433 in morning trading in Europe, from $1.3456 Tuesday evening. The dollar also rose against the pound, which fell to $1.9942 from US$1.9987. Meanwhile, the dollar fell against the Japanese yen, to 122.58 yen from 123.24 the previous evening.