Oracle’s Mixed Q1 Earnings: Profits Up 15 Percent But Revenue Down As Ellison Emphasizes The Cloud

Oracle just announced mixed third quarter earnings this afternoon, reporting that revenues were down 2% to $8.2 billion. GAAP earnings per share were $0.41, up 15% compared to last year while non-GAAP earnings per share were up 11% to $0.53. Analysts expected $0.53 in earnings per share on $8.4 billion in revenue

GAAP new software licenses and cloud software subscriptions revenues were up 5% to $1.6 billion, while non-GAAP new software licenses and cloud software subscriptions revenues were up 6% to $1.6 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 3% to $4.1 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues were down 24% to $779 million.

Despite the mixed results, Oracle President and CFO, Safra Catz seems optimistic. “Q1 operating cash flow increased to a record high of $5.7 billion. We’re off to a good start in the new year.”

“A little more than a week from now we will announce lots of enhancements to the Oracle Cloud,” said Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison. “There are more CRM, ERP and HCM applications as a service, and more Oracle database, Java and social network platform services. Our new infrastructure as a service is available in the Oracle Cloud and as a private cloud in our customers’ data center, with the unique ability to move applications and services back and forth between the two.”

Oracle President, Mark Hurd said that the company expects to double engineered systems sales to well over $1 billion. And Oracle’s new cloud business is also approaching a $1 billion annual run rate. He says these two businesses will “drive Oracle’s growth for years to come.”

It’s not surprising that both Ellison and Hurd point to the cloud as one of Oracle’s main drivers in the future. As we’ve written in the past, Oracle has been “cloudwashing” of late.