Larry EllisonAPOracle executive chairman and CTO Larry Ellison
Oracle just reported its Q1 2016 earnings and we're sifting through them now.
It reported: 

  • FQ1 EPS of $0.53 thats a 1 cent beat. 
  • Revenue of $8.45 billion, that's a miss by $80 million (down 1.7% year over year.)

Analysts were not expecting Oracle to have a particularly stellar quarter. They were projecting a flat to slight decline in sales and a 10 cent drop in EPS.
Oracle is blaming the miss on the foreign currency exchange. Adjusting for that, the company says revenue would have been up 7%.
Meanwhile, executive are playing up Oracle's growing cloud business and have promised to make it very profitable. Oracle CEO Safra Catz vowed in the earnings press release to double profit margins on cloud products in two years from 40% to 80%. 
Oracle has had some bumpy earnings of late, missing sales expectations in five of the past six quarters, MarketWatch reports. So this is another revenue miss for the company.
Cloud SaaS and PaaS Revenues up 34% in U.S. Dollars and up 38% in Constant Currency
Cloud Plus On-Premise Software Revenues Down 2% in U.S. Dollars and up 6% in Constant Currency
REDWOOD SHORES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/16/15 -- Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) today announced fiscal 2016 Q1 results. The strengthening of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currencies had a significant impact on results in the quarter. Total Revenues were $8.4 billion, down 2% in U.S. dollars but up 7% in constant currency.
Cloud plus On-Premise Software Revenues were $6.5 billion, down 2% in U.S. dollars and up 6% in constant currency.
Total Cloud Revenues were $611 million, up 29% in U.S. dollars and up 34% in constant currency. Cloud software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) revenues were $451 million, up 34% in U.S. dollars and up 38% in constant currency.
Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) revenues were $160 million, up 16% in U.S. dollars and up 23% in constant currency.
Total On-Premise Software Revenues were $5.8 billion, down 4% in U.S. dollars but up 4% in constant currency. Total Hardware Revenues were $1.1 billion, down 3% in U.S. dollars but up 6% in constant currency. Total Services Revenues were $862 million, up 1% in U.S. dollars and up 10% in constant currency.
Operating Income was $2.7 billion and Operating Margin was 31%. Non-GAAP Operating Income was $3.5 billion and non-GAAP Operating Margin was 41%. Net Income was $1.7 billion while non-GAAP Net Income was $2.3 billion. Earnings Per Share was $0.40, while non-GAAP Earnings Per Share was $0.53. Without the impact of the U.S. dollar strengthening compared to foreign currencies, Oracle's reported Q1 GAAP and non-GAAP Earnings Per Share would have been 6 cents higher.
Short-term deferred revenues were $9.1 billion, up 2% in U.S. dollars and up 10% in constant currency compared with a year ago. Operating cash flow on a trailing twelve-month basis was $13.5 billion.
"Our traditional on-premise software business plus our new cloud business grew at a combined rate of 6% in constant currency," said Oracle CEO, Safra Catz. "This growth is being driven by new SaaS and PaaS annual recurring cloud subscription contracts which almost tripled in the quarter. As our cloud business scales-up, we plan to double our SaaS and PaaS cloud margins over the next two years -- starting from 40% this just completed Q1, to approximately 60% this coming Q4, and then on up to 80% two years from now. Rapidly growing cloud revenue combined with a doubling of cloud margins will have a huge impact on EPS growth going forward."
"In Q1 SaaS and PaaS revenue was up 38% in constant currency -- in Q4 that revenue growth rate will be over 60%," said Oracle CEO, Mark Hurd. "That cloud revenue growth rate is being driven by a year-over-year bookings growth rate of over 150% in Q1. Our increasing revenue growth rate is in sharp contrast to our primary cloud competitor's revenue growth rates which are on their way down."
"We are still on target to book between $1.5 and $2.0 billion of new SaaS and PaaS business this fiscal year," said Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison. "That means Oracle would sell between 50% more and double the amount of new cloud business thansalesforce.com plans to sell in their current fiscal year. Oracle is the world's second largest SaaS and PaaS company, but we are rapidly closing in on number one."
The Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share of outstanding common stock. This dividend will be paid to stockholders of record as of the close of business on October 14, 2015, with a payment date of October 28, 2015.