What happened
Shares of MongoDB (MDB 3.33%) closed Thursday's trading 11.1% higher. The NoSQL database software maker didn't have any news of its own today, but the stock was able to ride a delayed updraft from Tuesday evening's stellar earnings report as traditional database giant Oracle (ORCL 3.75%) reported less impressive results Wednesday evening. Oracle's stock fell 6.5% on Thursday, reacting to the same news from a very different point of view.
So what
MongoDB's fourth-quarter sales rose 38% year over year to $171 million, smoking Wall Street's consensus estimate of $157 million. Oracle's third-quarter revenues increased by 3% to $10.1 billion, edging out the Street's $10.07 billion target by a rounding error. Both companies also exceeded Wall Street's earnings estimates. MongoDB's adjusted net loss of $0.33 per share was 15% smaller than expected, while Oracle's earnings of $1.16 per share works out to a 5% surprise.
Looking ahead, MongoDB set next-quarter targets ahead of current analyst projections, while Oracle's guidance stopped significantly below the Street view.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
MongoDB's investors took one look at Oracle's results and saw the NoSQL expert's share of the global database market growing at the expense of more traditional solutions.
"I think it's become clear to everyone that MongoDB is a very viable mission-critical platform in contrast to -- as a viable alternative to relational databases," CEO Dev Ittycheria said on the earnings call. "And frankly, we don't hear anyone in our customer base talking about growing their SQL server, Oracle, or Db2 estates."
This is not a new trend. but the two reports provided a clear-cut demonstration of what's going on in the database market. It's no surprise to see MongoDB investors celebrating Oracle's disappointing third-quarter report today.
