Oracle Corp shares rose as much as 12% to a new high Wednesday after the company hosted a decidedly upbeat meeting with analysts at which it previewed strong sales for its second quarter, ending November 30. Oracle hit an all-time high of $72.375 in the session before slumping a bit to close at $71, up $6.50, or 10%, on the day. A total of 25.1 million shares changed hands, nearly double the stock’s average daily volume. The shares have climbed steadily upward since hitting a 52-week low of $21 in April and have risen more than 60% in the past month.
The latest boost was provided by management’s bullishness about second-quarter results at analyst day Tuesday. The company said a strong performance in October has left the quarter tracking ahead of Wall Street forecasts – which called for earnings of $0.21 per share before the meeting. The first two months of the quarter are showing license revenue growth stronger than the fourth quarter’s 23% rate, according to Merrill Lynch.
Oracle also told analysts that its pipeline is strengthening as the company enjoys accelerating orders for front office/e- business applications and aggressive adoption of Oracle 8i as an e-business platform. In addition, management indicated that the company feels increasingly confident that Y2K will have no negative impact. License growth is expected to pick up steam over the next two years and the margin expansion opportunity is perceived to be enormous, the company said.
