Oracle Shares Rise After Earnings Beat, Dividend Increase

Oracle Corp. shares rose more than 3% late Wednesday after the software giant reported fiscal third-quarter earnings above expectations and sales, including cloud revenues, were in line with forecasts. Oracle said it earned $2.7 billion, or 53 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $2.1 billion, or 50 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, Oracle earned 69 cents a share. Sales reached $9.3 billion in the quarter, up from $9 billion a year ago. Total revenue from cloud operations reached $1.2 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected the company to report adjusted earnings of 62 cents a share on sales of $9.3 billion. Cloud sales were seen at $1.2 billion. Oracle also announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of 19 cents a share, a 27% increase over the current quarterly dividend of 15 cents a share. The dividend will be paid to stockholders of record on April 12 and paid on April 26. Oracle had fallen short of FactSet estimates in eight of the past 10 quarters. Shares ended the regular trading session up 0.6%.