Oracle quarterly results beat on strength in cloud business

(Reuters) – Business software maker Oracle Corp beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly results on Monday, as it added more clients to its cloud services and license support business, sending its shares up nearly 4 percent in extended trading.

Revenue from the unit, its biggest, rose 2.7 percent to $6.64 billion, as more companies shifted to cloud computing from the traditional on-premise model to cut costs.

Analysts on average were expecting a revenue of $6.62 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Oracle, a late entrant to the rapidly growing cloud-based software business, has aggressively stepped up its efforts to catch up with rivals such as Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Salesforce.com Inc.

The company’s net income rose to $2.33 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the second quarter ended Nov. 30, from $2.21 billion, or 52 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 80 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 78 cents per share.

Total revenue fell to $9.56 billion from $9.59 billion, but beat analyst expectation of $9.52 billion.

Shares of Oracle, which have lost nearly 4 percent this year, rose to $47.35 in after-market trading.