What Was That You Were Saying About Oracle's Worst Quarter in 15 Years?

March 23, 2009 at 10:18 am PT

Well, JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens’s assessment of Oracle’s business these past few months was about as wrong as wrong can be, wasn’t it? In early March, Walravens predicted the company’s February quarter would be an abysmal one. “Our due diligence suggests that the February quarter was, in some respects, the worst Oracle has experienced in over 15 years,” he said. “The tone of the commentary from our industry sources regarding new license revenue is the worst we have ever heard.”

Two weeks later the company posts better-than-expected results for that quarter and announces a dividend–its first ever. So much for Walraven’s worst-quarter-in-15-years prediction.

So what did the analyst have to say for himself in light of Oracle’s report? “It surprised me in almost every way,” he told MarketWatch. “[It] doesn’t square with what you hear from people in the industry.”

Well, it certainly doesn’t square with what we were hearing from you, Patrick…

Tagged with: dividend, February quarter, JMP Securities, John Paczkowski, license revenue, MarketWatch, Oracle, ORCL, Patrick Walravens, prediction, software

comments so far. Add yours.

Chuck Lee

That idiot made me sell all my ORACLE shares in a hurry and ruined my profits.
Luciano Scotto

It is incredible how analysts can be greatly incompetent….
The comments from that guy came just when the market was plummeting on March 5th; out of sheer panic, I sold a good chunk of my ORCL stocks, literally loosing tens of thousands of dollars…….

And now what does he do?
He says : “Oh well, it is surprising…….”

This behavior is totally outrageous.

In a private e-mail, I have asked that he posted a letter of apology to the Yahoo Finance community, I am still waiting…..
http://allthingsd.com/ Tom Foremski

So how did Oracle do it? That’s where some analysis would be useful…