Oracle (ORCL) Higher On Solid Report, Guidance

Shares of Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) are 8% higher mid-day after a solid earnings report and guidance from the company, which calmed investors fears that the slowing global economy was hurting the software giant.

After the close, Oracle reported Q1 EPS of $0.29, ex-items, which was 2 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.27. Oracle's revenues for the quarter were $5.3 billion, versus the consensus of $5.42 billion. Oracle also delivered a Q1 non-GAAP operating margin of 40%, which was their highest ever in Q1. Oracle said more database customers are buying their integrated suite of standards based Fusion middleware to modernize their systems.

For Q2, Oracle sees EPS of $0.35-$0.36, which compares positively to the consensus of $0.35.

Analysts were positive on Oracle following the results. Piper Jaffray upgraded the company to Buy, citing a compelling valuation, earnings resiliency which is underappreciated and a competitive position that is steadily improving. The firm noted that at just 12x their '09 EPS estimate of $1.59 this is the lowest multiple for ORCL shares in many years.

Oracle, an enterprise software company, engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, servicing, and marketing of database, middleware, and application software worldwide.

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