Oracle Stock Plunges After Earnings Miss

REDWOOD SHORES (CBS/AP) -- Shares of Oracle plummeted in Thursday trading a day after the enterprise software giant reported earnings that missed analysts' expectations by a wide margin.

At midday trading Thursday, Oracle was down more than eight percent after earlier falling as much as 10 percent.

Oracle reported flat earnings for its fiscal third-quarter, hurt by a drop in sales of hardware systems and new software.

Revenue from new software licenses and online or "cloud" subscriptions, a closely watched figure, fell 2 percent year-over-year to $2.3 billion. Sales of hardware systems products dropped 23 percent.

Oracle earned $2.5 billion, or 52 cents per share, in the December-February quarter. That compares with $2.5 billion, or 49 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier, when it had more shares outstanding. Adjusted earnings totaled 65 cents per share in the latest quarter.

Revenue fell 1 percent to $8.96 billion from $9.04 billion, hurt in part by the stronger dollar.

Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 66 cents per share, excluding charges for past acquisitions and other costs, on revenue of $9.38 billion.

Oracle also warned that revenue from its hardware business will continue losing ground during this quarter.

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