Oracle Posts Quarterly Beat On Cloud Revenue

Shares of Oracle Corp. rallied 2.6% in after-hours trade after the database software giant reported a top- and bottom-line beat for the second quarter late Wednesday as its cloud business continued to gain steam. The company posted net income of $2.5 billion, or 56 cents a share, down marginally from $2.55 billion in the same period last year. Adjusted for one-time items, the software company reported earnings per share of 69 cents, topping average analyst estimates in a FactSet poll by a penny. Revenue increased 3% to $9.6 billion, beating the consensus view of $9.5 billion. Sales were led by its software and cloud division, which posted a 5% revenue increase to $7.3 billion. Its fast-growing software-as-a-service business reported a 45% revenue increase to $516 million, while hardware sales gained 1% to $1.3 billion.