Earnings

Oracle earnings beat Street, but some sales slow

Reuters with CNBC.com
WATCH LIVE
Mark Hurd, co-president of Oracle Corp.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Oracle on Wednesday reported a 1 percent decrease in new software sales and Internet-based software subscriptions in its fiscal second quarter.

The world's No. 2 software maker had forecast that new software sales and subscriptions would either drop as much as 4 percent or rise up to 6 percent in its second quarter, which ended in November. Investors scrutinize new software sales because they generate high-margin, long-term maintenance contracts and are an important indicator of future profit.

The company reported earnings excluding one-time items of 69 cents per share on revenue of $9.28 billion.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 67 cents a share on $9.20 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

(Read more: IBM accused of hiding China risks amid NSA scandal)

What is Oracle stock doing now? (Click here to get the latest quotes.)

—By Reuters with CNBC