By Jim Finkle
BOSTON (Reuters) - Business software maker ORACLE (ORCL.NQ)Corp
Oracle also posted on Wednesday a smaller-than-expected fall in new software sales to $1.5 billion, or 6 percent. Analysts had expected a decline of about 12 percent as the weak economy and currency fluctuations cut into sales at the maker of business management programs and computer databases.
"They beat on just about every metric," said JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens, who has a "market perform" rating on the stock. Neither Walravens nor his firm holds shares in Oracle.
Oracle, the world's third-largest software maker, posted profit, excluding special items, of 35 cents per share for its fiscal third quarter ended Feb 28, beating the average analyst forecast of 32 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue rose 2 percent to $5.5 billion. The average Wall Street estimate was $5.4 billion.
Investors will be listening closely to the software maker's conference call beginning at 5 p.m. New York time to hear executives discuss their outlook for the current quarter, traditionally Oracle's strongest period in its fiscal year.
Oracle said it would pay a dividend of 5 cents per share, or 20 cents annually, its first such payment to shareholders since the company went public in March 1986.
The software maker joins rivals Microsoft Corp
Third-quarter net income fell 1 percent to $1.33 billion, or 26 cents per share, from $1.34 billion, or 26 cents, a year earlier.
The drop in new software sales was offset by an 11 percent increase in fees that Oracle collects for maintenance for programs it has previously sold to clients. It generally charges them an annual fee of 22 percent of the software's original cost for help-desk service, patches, bug fixes and upgrades to new versions of its programs.
Shares in Redwood City, California-based Oracle rose to $16.78 in extended trade from their Nasdaq close of $15.83.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle; editing by Carol Bishopric)