Oracle shares climbed 7% in extended trading Thursday after the software vendor reported fiscal first-quarter results that topped analyst estimates, powered by accelerating demand for cloud infrastructure tied to the artificial intelligence buildout.
Revenue for the quarter ended Aug. 31 grew almost 30% year over year, according to CNBC, which cited the company’s statement. Net income came in at $4.68 billion, or $1.56 per share, up from $2.93 billion, or $1.01 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Adjusted earnings exclude stock-based compensation expense.
The headline beat was driven by the cloud business. Cloud revenue soared 62% to $11.61 billion, topping the $11.51 billion consensus among analysts polled by StreetAccount. Within that, cloud infrastructure revenue more than doubled to $7.4 billion, comfortably ahead of the $7.09 billion estimate.
Not every segment kept pace. Oracle’s software category contributed $5.55 billion in revenue, down about 3% and below StreetAccount’s $5.61 billion consensus.
Guidance Points to Sustained Momentum
For the fiscal second quarter, Oracle guided toward $1.85 to $1.93 in adjusted earnings per share, with revenue growth between 30% and 34%. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had been looking for $1.89 in adjusted earnings per share on $21.20 billion in revenue, which would represent roughly 32% growth.
For the full 2027 fiscal year, the company now sees $8.10 in adjusted earnings per share on at least $90 billion in revenue, against an LSEG consensus of $8.07 per share and $89.76 billion in revenue.
Capital spending guidance for the full year is unchanged, finance chief Hilary Maxson said in a briefing with reporters.
Much of Oracle’s expansion is tied to data center growth as the company works to become a bigger player in the AI boom. Maxson pushed back on any suggestion that construction timelines are slipping.
“Nothing that we know today would lead us to believe that New Mexico or any of our other sites are delayed relative to the schedules that we included, for example, in our fiscal ’27 outlook,” she said.
The company said it delivered 850 megawatts of data center capacity during the quarter.
Debt and Cash Burn Draw Scrutiny
Oracle’s aggressive buildout comes with a financial profile that differs from its larger hyperscaler rivals. The company carries a lower credit rating and a weaker cash position than those competitors. It now sits on $125 billion in debt, and negative free cash flow reached $5.4 billion, compared with negative $362 million a year earlier.
Capital expenditures in the fiscal first quarter soared to $28.50 billion from $8.50 billion last year.
The balance sheet pressure has weighed on the stock. As of Thursday’s close, Oracle shares had dropped 22% this year, while the S&P 500 gained roughly 11% over the same stretch.
Backlog offers a counterweight to those concerns. At the end of the quarter, Oracle’s remaining performance obligations stood at $664 billion, above StreetAccount’s $630.6 billion consensus. That figure includes contracted but unrecognized revenue, deferred revenue and uncollected invoices.
New AI contracts won’t have any impact on Oracle’s plans to raise capital, according to the company’s statement.
During the quarter, Oracle also announced AI agents aimed at human resources teams and secured a Pentagon contract worth up to $7 billion over a decade.
Executives were set to discuss the results with analysts on a conference call beginning at 5 p.m. ET.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/10/oracle-orcl-q1-earnings-report-2027.html
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