By Shira Ovide 

The Oracle Corp. profit machine is back in gear.

Best known for databases used by many big businesses, the company posted quarterly results Wednesday that were a pleasant surprise for investors who had lost confidence in the company's ability to churn out reliable financial results.

While net income fell 2%, adjusted profits and revenue exceeded the average of estimates from Wall Street financial analysts. That broke a string of three straight quarters in which Oracle's financial results fell short of analyst expectations.

Oracle's revenue of $9.6 billion, up 3.5% from a year earlier, was a bit higher than the average of Wall Street estimates, which as $9.51 billion. Earnings adjusted for income-tax effects and other items were 69 cents a share, a penny higher than analyst expectations.

"This was a nice step in the right direction for Oracle, and was a stark contrast to the softness seen over the last few quarters," said Daniel Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets.

Oracle rose about 4.7% in trading after the regular close of U.S. stock markets, to $43.10. The share price through Wednesday had climbed about 8% this year, a bit lower than the gains in the S&P 500 stock index.

The report was an upbeat start for co-CEOs Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, who took over the top job in September. Larry Ellison, who built the company into one of the world's biggest tech firms, stepped down as CEO after 37 years.

While Ms. Catz and Mr. Hurd are experienced hands at Oracle, the question is how aggressively they will change the company. Mr. Ellison has made it clear he will remain actively involved in his new role as head of engineering.

Oracle's sales of cloud software--a catchall category that includes Web-friendly versions of the company's applications for human-resources departments and sales people--rose 45% from the same quarter a year earlier. Three months ago, cloud software sales rose 31%. Cloud software sales were 5.4% of total revenue, less than the 5.5% in the prior quarter.

"The acceleration in the business bodes very well for our future," Ms. Catz said on a conference call Wednesday with analysts.

Cloud software is a crucial area for Oracle and its peers as more business customers prefer to subscribe to software accessed over the Web, rather than purchase it outright and then pay monthly maintenance fees to keep it up-to-date.

Mr. Ellison boasted on the conference call that Oracle next year may book more new cloud-software business than Salesforce.com Inc., a fierce Oracle rival and a sometime partner that has been selling cloud software for 15 years.

"It's going to be close. We're catching up to them and we're catching up very quickly," Mr. Ellison said.

Like other big corporate-technology companies that sell products across the globe, Oracle stressed how the strong U.S. dollar is weighing on the company's growth rate. Revenue rose 7% after adjusting for the strong dollar, Oracle reported. Ms. Catz emphasized that it is difficult to predict how foreign-exchange rates will affect Oracle's financial results in coming months.

Write to Shira Ovide at shira.ovide@wsj.com

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