Oracle shares were down sharply Thursday following Wednesday s first quarter report that just missed Wall Street expectations on revenue.
Shares in the Redwood City software giant were trading at $37.10, down more than 3 percent, or $1.17 a share, at midday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Analyst David Ives with FBR & Co. said the earnings report was better than feared after a dismal fourth quarter report.
Revenues of $8.4 billion were below the analysts estimate of $8.5 billion published by Thompson Reuters.
Ives said in a note that Oracle remains laser focused on reaccelerating top-line growth with fast-growing cloud offerings…and an impressive set of engineered systems all at the forefront of the company s growth opportunities.
So far, investors have not caught the enthusiasm voiced by executive chairman Larry Ellison and his co-CEOs Safra Catz and Mark Hurd for the company s coming transition to the internet cloud.
They said the company s new cloud offerings, in which Oracle provides software through the internet, will show significant revenue growth in the second half of 2016.
Catz called it an extremely quick transition to the cloud which is taking place in the coming year.
In its earnings report Wednesday, Oracle noted that it s cloud software and platform as a services revenue was up 34 percent in U.S. dollars and up 38 percent when adjusted for currency fluctuations.
Photo: Oracle signage at Moscone Center (REUTERS/Stephen Lam/Files)
