High Earnings Expectations For Adobe, Not So Much For Oracle

As the quarter and the calendar year wind down, things have turned quiet on the earnings front. Yet, the latest quarterly numbers from leading software companies Adobe Systems Incorporated ADBE and Oracle Corporation ORCL will be among the highlights this week.

The consensus Wall Street forecast sees strong top and bottom line growth for Adobe, though at least one analyst indicated there was limited upside during the period. On the other hand, Oracle is expected to report that earnings slipped year-over-year in the period that included the acquisition of a cloud infrastructure company.

Adobe

When Adobe shares its fiscal fourth-quarter results, the analysts on average predict that its earnings per share will have grown by about 28 percent from a year ago to $0.86. The $1.59 billion in expected revenue would be more than 21 percent gain. Note that this maker of Photoshop has topped the consensus EPS estimates in the past eight quarters.

The forecast from 80 Estimize respondents is in the same ballpark, with EPS expected to come in at $0.87. And the consensus revenue estimate for the three months that ended in November is also $1.59 billion. Both forecasts represent the highest top and bottom line results Adobe has posted in the past two years.

Oracle

Wall Street's consensus forecast for Oracle calls for EPS to have slipped from $0.63 in the same period of last year to $0.61. And note that the second-largest software maker by revenue fell short of analysts' EPS expectations in the previous two quarters. The 95 Estimize respondents have a consensus estimate of $0.62 per share for the three months that ended in November.

Estimize likewise overestimated revenue in the previous quarter, and this time the respondents are looking for $9.17 billion, the same as the Wall Street consensus forecast for the fiscal second quarter. That would be less than 2 percent higher than in the year-ago period. Wall Street so far does anticipate growth on both the top and bottom lines for the current quarter.

Both Adobe and Oracle are scheduled to report their latest results after the closing bell on Thursday.

Best Of The Rest

Jabil Circuit also is expected to report its earnings this week, and Wall Street sees a decline on the bottom line. Smaller earnings, compared with a year ago, are also expected when Joy Global, Pier 1 Imports and Verifone share their results in the coming days.

In the following week, look for quarterly reports expected from the likes of Bed Bath & Beyond, BlackBerry, FedEx, General Mills, Micron Technology, Nike and Rite Aid.

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