Oracle Revenues, Profits Top Wall Street Views

Oracle Corp.‘s quarterly profit edged past Wall Street’s estimates as revenue from new software licenses ratcheted higher for the second quarter in a row.

That is an encouraging sign that big companies are steadily increasing their spending on new technology projects.

Oracle said after the market closed that its net income was $1.2 billion, or 23 cents per share, in the three months ended Feb. 28. That compares with $1.3 billion, or 26 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue grew 17 percent to $6.4 billion.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 38 cents per share. On that basis analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Oracle to earn 37 cents per share on $6.3 billion in revenue.

JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO