Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), the Redwood City, Calif.-based enterprise software giant that is acquiring Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), is scheduled to discuss its fiscal first-quarter 2010 results Thursday in a conference call at 5:00 PM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.
For the three months that ended in August, during which Oracle made another acquisition, as well as a debt offering, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings per share of $0.30, a mere penny higher than a year ago. But revenue for the quarter is expected to have fallen 3.3% to $5.3 billion.
Analysts so far expect sequentially better earnings and sales in the second quarter. And for the full year, they are looking for $1.53 per share (+5.9%) on $23.9 billion (+1.8%). Oracle's earnings have not missed estimates in recent quarters.
The long-term EPS growth forecast is 13.7%, which is better than that of rivals SAP (NYSE: SAP) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Oracle's earnings multiple is 14. Short interest has been falling since early in the year. Oracle has kept enough cash on hand to cover its long-term debt in recent quarters, and its net cash flow from operations has been increasing too.
The consensus recommendation remains to buy ORCL; TheStreet.com recently pegged it as a top stock and Minyanville expects another upside surprise.
Oracle shares have risen about 28% year-to-date, recently reaching a 52-week high of $22.95.
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