Oracle Casts Its Bones: Fool by Numbers (ORCL)

Oracle Casts Its Bones: Fool by Numbers

On June 26, database and middleware giant Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL ) released fourth-quarter earnings for the period ended May 31, 2007.

Oracle posted impressive growth for such a large company, structured just the way a Fool would want it. The company snared big revenue gains, a bigger operational boost, even more juice in the net profits -- and then again, after accounting for share buybacks -- capped off with the largest gains of all in various cash flows. Very nice.
However, it's unclear how much of the growth is organic, and how much came from the $5 billion Oracle spent on acquisitions over the past year.
That's a minor quibble, though. Oracle knows that its acquisition-based growth strategy is unusual and controversial, and it's prepared to defend its tactics to the bitter end. Take that, IBM (NYSE: IBM ) and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP ) !

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

	Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change
Sales	$5,828	$4,851	20.1%
Net Profit	$1,604	$1,300	23.4%
EPS	$0.31	$0.24	29.2%
Diluted Shares	5,224	5,373	(2.8%)

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin Checkup

Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change*
80.2%	80.1%	0.0
39.1%	38.3%	0.9
27.5%	26.8%	0.7

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$7,020	$7,605	(7.7%)
Accounts Rec.	$4,074	$3,022	34.8%

Liabilities	Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change
Accounts Payable	$315	$268	17.5%
Long-Term Debt	$6,235	$5,735	8.7%

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash Flow Highlights

	Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change
Cash From Ops.	$2,215	$1,679	31.9%
Capital Expenditures	$136	$75	81.3%
Free Cash Flow	$2,079	$1,604	29.6%
Owner Earnings	$2,140	$1,537	39.2%

Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend.

Related Foolishness:

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, Anders Bylund had no position in any company mentioned. Fool rules are here.

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