Oracle Soars on Software Sales

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Oracle (ORCL) is moving higher in extended-trading after second-quarter earnings came in better than expected.

Oracle, which is based in Redwood City, CA, earned on a non-GAAP basis 64 cents per share on $9.094 billion in revenue, thanks in part to new software licenses and cloud software subscriptions revenues, which rose 17% year-over-year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting second-quarter earnings of 61 cents per share on $9.01 billion in revenue.

"New software license sales and cloud subscriptions grew 18% in constant currency," said Oracle President and CFO, Safra Catz in the press release. "Strong organic growth in our software business coupled with a focus on the highly profitable engineered systems segment of our hardware business enabled a Q2 non-GAAP operating margin of 47%. During the last four quarters operating cash flow was more than $13.5 billion -- $10.2 billion of which was returned to our shareholders as we repurchased nearly 350 million ORCL shares during that same twelve month period."

CEO Larry Ellison was positive on the Sun acquisition, calling it one of Oracle's best ever. "Sun has proven to be one of the most strategic and profitable acquisitions we have ever made," Ellison said in the press release. "Sun technology enabled Oracle to become a leader in the highly profitable engineered system segment of the hardware business. I believe that products like Exadata and the SPARC SuperCluster will not only continue to drive improved profitability in our hardware business, by the end of this fiscal year, they will also drive growth in our hardware business."

The company will hold a conference call at 5 P.M. EST to discuss the results.

Shares of Oracle closed the session higher, gaining 1.67% to finish at $32.86. The stock is moving higher in after-hours, tacking on 2.59% to $33.71 according to Nasdaq.com.

--Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York

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