Oracle’s rising sales a reprieve for investors

Bloomberg

Oracle Corp.’s shares climbed after the world’s second-largest software maker returned to sales growth and gave a forecast indicating the momentum may continue. For investors, the results were a reprieve amid the company’s uneven transition to cloud-based computing.
Revenue increased 1.1 percent to $11.1 billion in the period ended on May 31 from a year earlier, the Redwood City, California-based company said in a statement. Analysts, on average, projected $10.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Oracle said sales will grow as much as 2 percent in the current period.
Chief Executive Officers Safra Catz and Mark Hurd have sought to maintain Oracle’s large customer base as the company competes with a dizzying number of rivals in the cloud-computing space. The software maker’s stumbles against Amazon.com Inc. and others have spurred the company to seek help from unlikely sources. Earlier this month, Oracle announced an alliance with longtime rival Microsoft Corp., letting customers use their respective clouds.
The period marked Oracle’s first year-over-year increase in total revenue since the fiscal first quarter. Oracle shares jumped about 5 percent in extended trading after closing at $52.68 in New York. The stock has gained 17 percent this year.
Profit, excluding some expenses, will be 80 cents to 82 cents a share in the period that ends in August, Catz said on a conference call.