(Reuters) -Oracle Corp on Monday posted better-than-expected revenue in the second quarter, benefiting from strong demand for its cloud software services and the acquisition of electronic medical records firm Cerner (NASDAQ:CERN).
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) has been pushing aggressively into the cloud computing market to make up for its late start and better compete with larger rivals Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s cloud offerings.
For the third quarter, Oracle forecast revenue to rise between 21% and 23% in constant currency, while analysts expect growth of about 17.4%.
Return to offices and hybrid work models have pushed up demand for its suite of cloud software, especially from large businesses. Some analysts even believe Oracle is likely to weather macroeconomic weakness better than rivals, although it has taken a slight hit from a stronger dollar.
Shares in Oracle rose 2.8% to $83.50 in extended trading. They have fallen 6.8% this year.
Oracle said Cerner, which it acquired earlier this year for over $28 billion, contributed $1.5 billion to revenue in the second quarter ended Nov. 30.
Total revenue rose 18.5% to $12.28 billion compared with a Refinitiv consensus estimate of $12.05 billion.
Excluding items, Oracle earned $1.21 per share.