Oracle's profit looks fine, but sales? Not so much

Enterprise technology giant Oracle announced on Thursday first quarter earnings of 53 cents per share and revenues of $8.21 billion, matching analysts' estimates for share price but falling short of revenue expectations of $8.42 billion.

Despite the drop in sales, the company's net profits on a GAAP basis are up for the quarter ended in August. Shares fell by about 2 percent in after hours trading.

Here's a look at the numbers:

• New software licenses & cloud software subscriptions revenues (GAAP) up 5 percent to $1.6 billion


• Software license updates and product support revenues (GAAP) up 3 percent to $4.1 billion


• Hardware systems products revenues (GAAP) down 24 [ercemt to $779 million


• Operating income (GAAP) up 7 percent to $2.9 billion


• Operating margin (GAAP) was 35 percent


• Net income (GAAP) up 11 percent to $2.0 billion


• Earnings per share (GAAP) were $0.41, up 15 percent year over year


• Operating cash flow on a trailing twelve-month basis (GAAP) was $14.0 billion, up 9 percent year over year

The company said its earnings would have been a touch higher if the U.S. dollar hadn't strengthened relative to foreign currencies.

"Q1 operating cash flow increased to a record high of $5.7 billion," CFO Safra Catz said. "We're off to a good start in the new year."

President Mark Hurd added, "Exadata, Exalogic, Exalytics and our other engineered sy... [Read more]