Oracle 1Q Profit Rises 8 Percent, Tops Wall Street View

REDWOOD SHORES (CBS/AP) -- Higher software revenue helped lift Oracle Corp.'s fiscal first-quarter net income by 8 percent.

The business software maker's adjusted profit beat Wall Street predictions, while its revenue fell short. Oracle shares rose 33 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.20 in aftermarket trading.

For the quarter ended Aug. 31, the Redwood Shores-based company earned $2.19 billion, or 47 cents per share, up from $2.03 billion, or 41 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

Excluding costs of paying employees in stock and one-time items, the company posted a profit of 59 cent per share for the recent quarter.

Revenue increased 2 percent, to $8.37 billion from $8.18 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 56 cents per share on $8.48 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Software revenue rose 6 percent to $6.08 billion and included a 5 percent increase in new software licenses and cloud software subscriptions to $1.65 billion.

Oracle President Mark Hurd said new software license sales were particularly strong in the Americas, where they rose 15 percent when excluding the effects of changes in exchange rates.

Hardware systems revenue fell 7 percent to $1.26 billion.

The company also said Wednesday that its board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents. This dividend will be paid on Oct. 29 to shareholders as of Oct. 8.

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