Oracle Corporation yesterday posted a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street estimates as new business software license revenue rose, sending its shares up 13 per cent to their highest in four years.
The company also said it posted its strongest first-quarter license growth in more than five years, gained share across all its product lines and forecast 22 per cent to 24 per cent revenue growth for the second quarter.
The company spent some $20 billion over the past three years gobbling up rivals.
Net income for the fiscal first quarter rose 29 per cent to $670 million, or 13 cents per share, from $519 million, or 10 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose nearly 30 per cent to $3.59 billion from $2.77 billion.
Excluding items, Oracle said it posted a per-share profit of 18 cents.
Analysts on average were expecting the world's biggest database software maker to post a per-share profit before items of 16 cents on revenue of $3.47 billion.
Total software revenue rose 29 per cent to $2.7 billion. New license revenue from applications soared 80 percent to $228 million - easily topping a Wall Street target for a 66 percent gain.
Stripping out its Siebel, Portal and i-flex acquisitions, Oracle said revenue grew 47 per cent as the company posted gains across all its geographic regions.
The Redwood Shores, California-based company said database and revenue gained 10 percent while services revenue rose 33 percent to $846 million.
The results come as investors are beginning to embrace the company's decision to spend $20 billion in the past three years to push into the market for business applications as its core database software market matures.
Oracle shares have gained about 32 per cent since June 15th when it first told investors of stronger-than-expected software license revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter. At the same time shares in its major rival, Germany's SAP AG, have fallen about 5 per cent.