US Markets
U.S. stocks were in the green on Friday morning after yesterday´s decline. The U.S. government reported that the consumer price index rose 0.4% in August, less than the increases of 0.6% registered in June and July. The Dow gained 0.25% to 27,604, the S&P 500 index rose 0.09% to 3,342 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.01%, to 10,917.
Gainers
• Laureate Education, Inc. (LAUR, Financial) +13.6%
• Peloton Interactive, Inc. (PTON, Financial) +6.9%
• Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM, Financial) +3.5%
• Moderna, Inc. (MRNA, Financial) +2.2%
Losers
• Nikola Corporation (NKLA, Financial) -8.8%
• Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI, Financial) -3.1%
• Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (HST, Financial) -2.8%
• Regency Centers Corporation (REG, Financial) -2.7%
Global Markets
The main European stock markets traded mostly in the red. The UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.32%, France's CAC 40 slid 0.04%, Germany's Dax was down 0.28% and Spain's Ibex 35 lost 0.82%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.74%, India's BSE Sensex advanced 0.04%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 0.78% and China's Shanghai Composite was up 0.79%.
Oracle releases earnings report
Shares of Oracle Corporation (ORCL, Financial) jumped more than 6% on Friday morning after the company announced its fiscal first-quarter results the previous day. The company posted earnings per share of 93 cents, beating analysts' estimates by 7 cents. Revenue of $9.37 billion grew 1.6% year-over-year and also beat expectations by $190 million.
CEO Safra Catz had the following to say:
"Q1 was fantastic with total revenue beating guidance by more than $150 million, and non-GAAP earnings per share beating guidance by $0.07… Our cloud applications businesses continued their rapid revenue growth with Fusion ERP up 33% and NetSuite ERP up 23%. We now have 7,300 Fusion ERP customers and 23,000 NetSuite ERP customers in the Oracle Cloud. Our infrastructure businesses are also growing rapidly as revenue from Zoom more than doubled from Q4 last year to Q1 in this year. I have a high level of confidence that our revenue will accelerate as we move on past COVID-19."
Total quarterly revenues grew 2% year-over-year to $9.4 billion when compared to the same quarter of last year. Cloud services and license support revenues were up 2% to $6.9 billion. Cloud license and on-premise license revenues were up 9% and 8% in constant currency to $886 million.
Moreover, due to solid results, some analyst raised their price targets. Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow raised his price target to $59 from $52 and BMO Capital Markets Keith Bachman raised his price target to $63 from $57.
Richard Pzena (Trades, Portfolio) cut his investment in the stock by 21% to 3,040,881 shares during the quarter, while Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio) reduced his holdings by 1% to 13,060,435 shares.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
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