Oracle (ORCL) is scheduled to report results of its fiscal third quarter after the market close on March 19, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. What to watch for: 1. REVENUE CONSENSUS HIGHER: Along with its last report, Oracle guided for Q3 adjusted earnings per share of 68c-70c on revenue growth of 2%-4%. A tthe time, analysts were expecting the company to report Q3 EPS of 72c on revenue of $9.68B. The EPS consensus view remains unchanged, while the revenue view has since risen to $9.78B. 2. CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE EXPANSION: On February 12, Oracle announced plans to “significantly” expand its modern cloud infrastructure footprint. Under such plans, the company said it intends to open 12 new data centers regions and “increase the breadth and depth” of Oracle Cloud services available across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Oracle noted at the time that the regional expansion of its cloud footpring will include locations in Asia including China, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and South Korea; Europe including Amsterdam and Switzerland; and North America including two in Canada and two new US locations to support U.S. Department of Defense workloads. 3. INFORMATION REPORT: On January 2, The Information reported that Amazon (AMZN) and Salesforce (CRM) were “actively working” to replace Oracle with open-source alternatives in their critical systems. According to the report, Amazon was further along in this matter and actually starting looking into Oracle alternatives in the early 2000s. In addition, a former Salesforce employee told The Information that Salesforce has developed a database replacement with the code name of “Sayonara,” which is Japanese for “goodbye.” 4. PARTNER FEEDBACK: Last week, Cleveland Research analyst Ben Bollin said in a research note to investors that partner feedback suggests that Oracle demand is trending slightly below full year targets mainly as a result of slower than expected installed base upgrades and renewal activity. Bollin, who maintained a Neutral rating on the shares, forecast Q3 earnings of 71c and revenue of $9.7B. 5. BUYBACK: In its last report, Oracle boosted its share repurchase authorization by $12B. About a month and a half later, however, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing that its board of directors authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $12B of common stock under its existing share repurchase program. Oracle noted at the time that the stock repurchase authorization does not have an expiration date.
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