Ahead of the Bell: Oracle earnings

NEW YORK (AP) - Shares of Oracle Corp. climbed in premarket trading Friday after the business software maker posted a 25 percent increase in its fiscal fourth-quarter profit.

Adjusted earnings surpassed Wall Street's expectations as the company's sales of new software licenses rose for the third straight quarter. It was also Oracle's first full quarter with Sun Microsystems under its control.

FBR analyst David M. Hilal called the quarter solid, and said the company's revenue would have been better if not for the recent strength of the dollar.

"Oracle has done a good job bringing Sun to profitability in its first full quarter," the analyst wrote in a note to investors. Hilal rates Oracle's shares "Outperform."

"We view Oracle's team as very astute operators and believe the Sun business can be managed better than it previously was," he added.

Jefferies analyst Ross MacMillan also praised the results and called Oracle an "attractive large cap software investment."

Shares of Oracle jumped 4.6 percent to $23.25 in premarket trading Friday.