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(Bloomberg) — Oracle Corp. shares dropped in late trading after the second-largest software maker reported sales and profit that missed analysts’ estimates, hurt by slower demand for databases, applications and computer servers.
Profit before some costs in the fiscal second quarter ended Nov. 30 was 54 cents a share, on revenue excluding certain items of $8.81 billion, the company said in a statement yesterday. Analysts had projected profit of 57 cents on sales of $9.23 billion, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Oracle and other business-software companies are taking longer to close deals as companies gird for slow economic growth in the U.S. and the possibility of a recession in Europe next year, said Rick Sherlund, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. New software licenses, an indicator of future revenue, rose less than Sherlund projected, and sales of hardware acquired through the Sun Microsystems deal fell more than expected.
“The economy got a little harder for them,” Pat Walravens, an analyst at JMP Securities in San Francisco, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” “In that situation you need to manage your sales force a little more carefully. They were not doing that this quarter.” Walravens has a “market outperform” rating on Oracle shares.
Shares of Redwood City, California-based Oracle tumbled as low as $26.10 in extended trading yesterday. Before the report, they had gained 1.9 percent to $29.17 at the close in New York. The stock has declined 6.8 percent this year. The company also said it will buy back as much as $5 billion in stock.
Sales excluding certain items in the current quarter, which ends in February, will increase 1 percent to 5 percent from a year earlier, co-President Safra Catz said on a conference call yesterday. On average, analysts were predicting sales growth of 7.4 percent to $9.46 billion. Profit before some costs will be 55 cents to 58 cents a share, compared with analysts’ average 59-cent estimate.
In the second quarter, new software license sales rose 2.5 percent to $2.05 billion, compared with the $2.28 billion Sherlund estimated in a Dec. 15 research note.
Sales of hardware obtained in last year’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems declined to $953 million, missing the $1.06 billion in revenue estimated by Sherlund, who is based in New York and has a “buy” rating on the shares.
Net income in the second quarter rose 17 percent to $2.19 billion, or 43 cents a share, Oracle said in the statement.
In the third quarter, software license sales will be unchanged to 10 percent higher, and hardware sales will decline 5 percent to 15 percent, Catz said.
“This is indicative of some pullback in general enterprise IT spending,” said Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in Des Peres, Missouri. Technology spending next year could be constrained among European companies, government customers and banks, said Olson, who rates Oracle shares “buy.” “They’re going to feel the brunt of that.”
Customers are adding more layers of management approval for technology purchases, including some chief executive officers getting involved, Catz said yesterday. That’s slowing down the closing of contracts, she said. In response, Oracle has added new “deal management” procedures to monitor signings and make sure the necessary approvals are in place.
“We’ll have a much more normal next quarter,” she said. The effect of the declining value of the euro against the dollar also is hurting sales. Excluding the effect of currency fluctuations, revenue this quarter would increase 3 percent to 7 percent, Catz said.
Jason Maynard, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, said in a Dec. 19 report that corporate spending on hardware and software may fall 8 percent in the first quarter, a steeper drop than the average 7.3 percent average decline during the quarter in the past 10 years.
