With Oracle‘s (NYSE: ORCL) second-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings on deck, we will soon see just how well it performed, but there are several key areas investors should be watching to get an idea of what the balance of its year will look like.
One of the first items on the checklist will be whether Oracle provides guidance for its third quarter and year, and if so, what that guidance is. That forecast — if we get it — will be important because it will shed light on Oracle’s recently closed $9.3 billion acquisition of cloud provider NetSuite.
Oracle finalized the deal in early November, so it’s too soon to expect much impact from NetSuite on the Q2 numbers (if any). That said, a forecast would give investors some insight into what Oracle’s internal revenue expectations are, and how long it thinks it will take to fully integrate the mammoth purchase.
Another important benchmark, which Oracle should have no trouble delivering on, is surpassing $1 billion in cloud-related revenue. Oracle reported $969 million in total cloud sales last quarter, and considering its growth rate, $1 billion-plus this time should be in the bag.
Last on the list is whether or not Oracle exceeds the muted expectations of analysts. After accounting for one-time items, consensus earnings-per-share (EPS) estimates are for just $0.60 from $9.12 billion in revenue, a mere 1.3% above 2015’s $9 billion in sales. A year ago, Oracle reported earnings of $0.63 a share.
Of course, any impact on Oracle’s stock price based solely on meeting or exceeding analyst estimates will likely be short term.
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