A possible area of concern: middleware. Competitor Tibco warned on June 3, noting weak North American sales.
TIBX said earnings would be 5 to 6 cents per share, well below estimates of 8 cents a share. The company's shares fell 8% on that news. However, Oracle shares were unchanged that day. Is Oracle taking market share from Tibco or is there broader weakness in the middleware market?
OVERSEAS STRENGTH - Even if U.S. results are tepid, international sales are likely to pick up the slack.
TELL US ABOUT THE U.S. ECONOMY - What do Oracle's results tell us about business spending? Oracle sells to an amazingly wide range of American companies. Can you say bellwether?
INTEGRATION - Oracle closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of BEA Systems in April. How's the integration going? Look for estimates of costs (or savings).
HOW'S Q1 LOOKING? - Guidance for Q1 will be key. Will Oracle be able to repeat the strong numbers analysts are expecting for Q4?
ESTIMATES:
Q4 EPS up 19% to $0.44, revenues up 17% to $6.864 billion
Q1 EPS up 25% to $0.27, revenues up 19% to $5.471 billion
FY 09 EPS up 18% to $1.50, revenues up 16% to $25.793 billion
Source: Thomson Reuters
Note: See Factoids for Oracle's EPS and revenue guidance.
Year-ago actuals: Q2 EPS $0.37, revenues $5.883 billion
FACTOIDS:
PREVIOUS GUIDANCE - On March 26, Oracle said it expected Q4 profits of $0.43 to $0.44 per share and revenues between $6.71 billion and $6.94 billion.
DOUBLE-DIGIT QUARTER - Oracle shares lost 7% the day after last quarter's earnings report (March 27). But since then, ORCL is up 14.4%.
RECENT HIGH - On June 3, Oracle briefly rose to $23.57, its highest level in more than seven years.