Oracle Impresses: Fool by Numbers

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On Tuesday, business software giant Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) released Q1 2007 earnings for the period ended Aug. 31.

• Its sales growth -- 26% -- is very impressive for a company as big as Oracle. According to Capital IQ, only 22 of the 298 companies with revenues above $2.7 billion in the year-ago quarter can match or beat Oracle's 26% top-line, year-over-year growth.
• Margins haven't moved much from last year, but that's actually a good thing, considering the broad-spectrum drop in margins in the interim.
• Cash flow growth isn't quite keeping up with sales or earnings, but 12% is still a respectable increase and an indication of a healthy business overall.

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights*

	Avg. Est.	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Sales	$3,470	$3,661	$2,907	25.9%
Net Profit	--	$931	$738	26.2%
EPS	$0.16	$0.18	$0.14	28.6%
Diluted Shares	--	5314	5244	1.3%

*Based on pro forma numbers provided by the company, to keep comparisons with estimates fair.

Get back to basics with a look at the income statement.

Margin Checkup

	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change*
Gross Margin	73.45%	75.23%	(1.83)
Operating Margin	36.00%	35.16%	(0.84)
Net Margin	25.43%	25.39%	(0.04)

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine. See how they work.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$8,298	$4,632	79.1%
Accounts Rec.	$2,118	$1,651	28.3%
Inventory	No Data	No Data	No Data

Liabilities	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Accounts Payable	$223	$228	(2.2%)
Long-Term Debt	$5,737	$1,679*	241.7%

*Including $1,522 million of short-term and current long-term debt in Q1 2006.

Learn the ways of the balance sheet.

Cash Flow Highlights

	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Cash From Ops.	$1,623	$1,458	11.3%
Capital Expenditures	$49	$52	(5.8%)
Free Cash Flow	$1,574	$1,406	11.9%

Find out why Fools always follow the money.

Related companies:

• SAP (NYSE: SAP)
• CA (NYSE: CA)
• IBM (NYSE: IBM)
• Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)
• Accenture (NYSE: ACN)
• Sybase (NYSE: SY)

Related Foolishness:

• Oracle Flexes Again
• Risks and Profits in Oracle's Future
• Dueling Fools: Oracle Bull
• Dueling Fools: Oracle Bear

Microsoft and Accenture are Motley Fool Inside Value selections. Find out more about the value Philip Durell sees in these and other recommendations with a free 30-day trial subscription .

Fool by Numbers is designed to give you the raw earnings information in a timely fashion, putting all the numbers you need in one easy-to-read place. But at The Motley Fool, we believe numbers tell only part of the story, so check Fool.com for more of our in-depth discussion of what the numbers mean.

At the time of publication, Fool contributor Anders Bylund had positions in none of these companies. Fool rules are here.