Reuters: Technology News: Strong software sales boost Oracle shares

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Strong software sales boost Oracle shares Dec 19th 2012, 13:46 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Oracle beats outlook, shrugs off fiscal debate Tue, Dec 18 2012 Apple's iPhone 5 starts strong in China but shares pressured Mon, Dec 17 2012 Wall Street succumbs to Apple's fall, "cliff" uncertainty Fri, Dec 14 2012 Toll Brothers results indicate steady housing recovery Tue, Dec 4 2012 Analysis & Opinion Fiscal cliffhanger: Ignore the partisans Abe era will herald a three-digit yen Related Topics Tech » Hot Stocks » Asian Markets » The company logo is shown at the headquarters of Oracle Corporation in Redwood City, California February 2, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:46am EST (Reuters) - Shares of Oracle Corp, the world's No. 3 software maker, looked set to open about 3 percent higher on Wednesday after it forecast strong sales for next year, prompting several brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock. The company's results often set the tone for smaller software makers, and analysts said the 17 percent jump in its quarterly software sales boded well for the industry. Investors pay close attention to new software sales as they generate high-margin, long-term maintenance contracts and are an important gauge of a company's future profits. "Oracle delivered strong results in a challenging environment," Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Derrick Wood said in a note to clients. Some investors are worried that corporations would postpone spending on technology because of uncertainty over the year-end deadline for Congress and U.S. President Barack Obama to reach a compromise on the looming "fiscal cliff". "While (Oracle's) results may point to a bit more stable spending environment than is generally perceived, we think Oracle's strong execution is mostly being driven by the improvements they made to their go-to-market sales structure," Wood said. Wood, who has a "positive" rating on Oracle's stock, raised his price target by $2 to $40. Shares of the company, which closed at $32.88 on Tuesday on the Nasdaq, were up 2.9 percent at $33.79 in premarket trading. However, the company's hardware business, which it acquired with its $5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems in January 2010, continued to be sluggish, and quarterly hardware systems product sales fell 23 percent from a year earlier. "The only blemish in the quarter was on the hardware front, as the company remains focused on sunsetting uneconomical product offerings," FBR Capital Markets analysts said. The brokerage, which has an "outperform" rating on the company's stock, raised its price target by $1 to $37. (Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon) Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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