Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) is scheduled to report second quarter 2020 earnings results on Thursday, December 12, after the market closes. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.88 per share on revenue of $9.65 billion.
The company’s topline numbers are expected to benefit from strength in its cloud-based services as well as the launch of autonomous cloud services to complement the autonomous database. The strength in autonomous database is likely to bode well for the results. In the first quarter of 2020, Oracle added over 500 new autonomous database cloud customers and this is projected to more than double in the second quarter.
The strength in the cloud ERP business is also likely to boost the quarterly results. Last quarter, the cloud ERP businesses, including Fusion ERP and NetSuite ERP, grew 33%. Oracle continues to improve its cloud-based services as it faces tough competition from Amazon (NYSE: AMZN) and Alphabet’s (NYSE: GOOG) Google. However, higher costs are likely to pressurize margins in the second quarter.
Also read: Oracle Q1 2020 Earnings Conference Call Transcript
In the first quarter, the company reported adjusted earnings of $0.81 per share that was up 14% year-over-year and in line with analysts’ forecasts. Revenue amounted to $9.2 billion which was below estimates.
For the second quarter, Oracle has guided for revenue growth of 0-2% in US dollars and 1-3% in constant currency. Adjusted EPS is expected to grow between 9-11% to a range of $0.87-0.89 in US dollars, and between 10-12% to a range of $0.88-0.90 in constant currency. Shares of Oracle have gained over 23% so far this year and 2% in the past three months. The stock has an average 12-month price target of $56.92.