QuickStockAnalysis.com

Buffett offers little economic cheer

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he can’t predict when the US economy will recover from its current slump. “It’s not going to be tomorrow, it’s not going to be next month, and may not even be next year,” he said. The country is in the middle of a period of stagflation, with the economy slowing at the same time inflation worsens. “I think the `flation’ part will heat up and I think the `stag’ part will get worse,” Buffett said.

Asian markets trend down after Fed rate decision

Most Asian stock markets fell Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve left its interest rate unchanged. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped less than 0.1%, and the Hang Seng index was down 0.8%.

Trichet again hints at interest rate hike in Europe

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet indicated that an interest-rate increase is likely next week, saying that “particularly acute” inflation risks are becoming entrenched in Europe. He would not, however, indicate what the bank would do after an initial rate hike. “I didn’t say that we would envisage a series of increases,” Trichet told the European Parliament. “I didn’t say that. That being said, we never precommit.”

Oracle stock analysis

According to Pc World, Oracle (stock ticker: ORCL) reported fourth-quarter revenues of US$7.2 billion, a 24 percent rise compared to the same quarter last year, and total revenue for fiscal 2008 of $22.4 billion, up 25 percent.

Fourth-quarter earnings per share were up 27 percent to 39 cents over the same quarter in 2007, and net income also rose 27 percent, to $2 billion. For the fiscal year, earnings per share stood at $1.06, a rise of 30 percent. Net income for the year was $5.5 billion, up 29 percent.

Excluding one-time charges, analysts polled by Thomson Financial had on average predicted earnings per share of 44 cents for the fourth quarter and $1.27 for the year. Oracle’s adjusted results beat those estimates, at 47 cents per share for the quarter and $1.30 for the fiscal year.

Fourth-quarter software revenues rose 26 percent to $6 billion. Wall Street is increasingly viewing Oracle as a bellwether for the tech space overall, and even the larger economy.

Oracle is making pushes into new verticals as part of its growth strategy. This week it announced the acquisition of Skywire Software, maker of software for the insurance industry. That move followed its recent announcement that it planned to buy AdminServer, another insurance software maker.

Also this week, Oracle said it is forming a new health and sciences business unit. Meanwhile, the company recently pushed through a series of hefty price increases on its products.

For example, a CPU license for its database is now US$47,500, up from $40,000. Oracle also appears to have raised prices for software it gained through its recent acquisition of BEA.

List prices aren’t necessarily what customers pay for software products, as the cost often gets lowered dramatically through negotiations, but now the baseline for talks is higher, said Ray Wang, an analyst with Forrester Research, in a previous interview.