Oracle reports Q1 GAAP EPS of 22c up 8%, non-GAAP EPS od 30c up 3%

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) today announced fiscal 2010 Q1 GAAP earnings per share were $0.22, up 8% compared to last year. First quarter GAAP total revenue was down 5% to $5.1 billion, while quarterly GAAP net income was up 4% to $1.1 billion.

GAAP new software licence revenue was down 17% to $1 billion. GAAP software licence updates and product support revenue was up 6% to $3.1 billion. GAAP operating income was up 14% to $1.7 billion and GAAP operating margin was up 590 basis points to 34%. GAAP operating cash flow on a trailing 12-month basis was $8.8 billion, up 10%.

First quarter non-GAAP earnings per share were up 3% to $0.30. Non-GAAP total revenue was down 7% to $5.1 billion, while non-GAAP net income was flat at $1.5 billion, compared to the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP operating income was up 7% to $2.3 billion and non-GAAP operating margin was up 570 basis points to 46%.

Oracle's results were impacted by the reduced value of foreign currencies when compared to US dollars, reducing Q1 GAAP earnings by $0.02 per share. Without this impact, Oracle's Q1 GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per share would have been $0.24 and $0.32, respectively. GAAP and non-GAAP new software licence revenue would have been down 14%, and our software licence updates and product support revenue would have been up 11% on a GAAP basis, and up 8% on a non-GAAP basis. GAAP and non-GAAP operating income would have been up 21% and 11%, respectively.

In addition, Oracle's Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.05 per share of outstanding common stock to be paid to stockholders of record as of the close of business on 14 October 2009, with a payment date of 4 November 2009. Future declarations of quarterly dividends and the establishment of future record and payment dates are subject to the final determination of Oracle's Board of Directors.

“Yesterday, Sun and Oracle announced Exadata Version 2, which is twice as fast as Exadata Version 1 for data warehousing and the first and only database machine that runs online transaction processing - OLTP - applications,” said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. “This new combination of Sun hardware and Oracle software is now the world's fastest computer system for both OLTP and data warehousing.

“By substantially improving operating margins, we were able to increase Q1 earnings per share even though revenue decreased slightly,” said Safra Catz, Oracle's President. “We grew non-GAAP operating margins by 570 basis points to 46% in our seasonally smallest quarter. Our operating model continues to drive earnings for our stockholders.”

“Software licence updates and product support revenue grew 11%, to $3.1 billion, for the quarter when adjusted for the change in the US dollar since last year,” said Oracle Executive Vice-President and CFO, Jeff Epstein. “This growth, coupled with our disciplined expense management, was key to our ability to generate a record $8.5 billion in free cash flow over the last 12 months.”

“We grew faster than SAP in every region around the world, including Europe, where our applications business grew 3% in constant currency versus negative 39% for SAP's most recent quarter,” said Oracle President Charles Phillips. “Our applications team also executed especially well in North America, where our applications business grew 8% in constant currency versus negative 50% for SAP.”

Oracle will hold a conference call and Web broadcast today to discuss these results at 2pm (PDT)/5pm (EDT). You may listen to the call by dialling (866) 423-8620 or (719) 387-4093, Passcode: 745867. To access the live Web broadcast of this event, please visit the Oracle Investor Relations Web site at http://www.oracle.com/investor.