Oracle's Q4 results analysis
Oracle's Q4 earnings call has just finished. According to Safra Catz, Oracle CFO, the company delivered the company's highest operating margin at 41% for the quarter with software license updates and product support exceeding $10 billion for the year. By the numbers for the quarter:
- New software licenses: $3.1 billion, an increase of 27% in US$
- Software license updates and product support: $2.8 billion, up 25% in US$
- Services: $1.2 billion, up 17% in US$
- Operating income: $3 billion, up 30% in US$
- Net income: $2 billion up 27% in US$
Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO said the company wants to continue selling applications to mid-sized and large customers. "We want to focus on beating SAP by focusing industry standards."
Catz warned the company is up against a 'tough' last year Q1 when growth was 35%. For the coming first quarter, she is looking at new software growth in the 10% to 20% range with 18-20% growth overall. "We feel our strategy has a lot of strength left in it...In terms of a nine innings baseball game, I don't think we're even finished the second inning...We were particularly cautious in our [earlier] closure rates but we're using our regular closure rates."
On Fusion, Ellison said: "I think no change in terms of our schedules. We have a whole second generation of CRM products that help customers be more profitable. It will take some time before we get all the way through all the applications we offer." In regard to on-demand, Ellison said: "The last quarter was the first one where we made profit in on-demand."
Surprisingly, there was no question about the price hikes reported elsewhere.