What happened
Tech giant Oracle (ORCL -0.39%) surprised investors after the closing bell yesterday by reporting fourth-quarter results that beat the consensus estimate for both its top and bottom lines.
As a result, investors pushed the tech stock higher this morning, with shares rising as much as 13.1%. At 10:58 a.m. ET, Oracle's stock was up by 9.1%.
So what
The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.54 for the quarter, which easily beat Wall Street's average estimate of $1.37 per share.
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Investors were also happy to see that Oracle's revenue of $11.84 billion was up 5% from the year-ago quarter and beat analysts' consensus estimate of $11.66 billion.
The company highlighted some of the bright spots in the quarter, including its cloud services and license support segment -- which accounts for 64% of Oracle's total sales -- which increased by 3% in the quarter.
Additionally, the company's cloud license and on-premise license revenue -- which makes up 22% of total sales -- jumped 18% from the year-ago quarter.
Oracle CEO Safra Catz said in a press release that the company "experienced a major increase in demand in our infrastructure cloud business" and added, "We believe that this revenue growth spike indicates that our infrastructure business has now entered a hyper-growth phase."
Now what
Oracle's strong quarterly results stand in stark contrast to pessimism in the market right now -- especially among tech stocks. The market has been in a complete meltdown lately as investors worry about rising inflation and the Federal Reserve's response to it.
Oracle shareholders should be pleased with the company's latest results while also keeping in mind that tech stocks, in general, are likely to experience more share price swings in the months ahead.
