The company reported revenue of $5.83 billion for the period that ended May 31, an increase of 20 percent from $4.85 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Net income was up 23 percent, to $1.6 billion.
Oracle, which is based in Redwood Shores, Calif., and makes computer database software and business applications, has spent more than $20 billion in the last three years to buy two dozen companies.
“They’ve consolidated the industry, and the strategy appears to be working,” said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.
Analysts had projected revenue of $5.6 billion, at the high end of Oracle’s guidance. Earnings, excluding one-time items, were 37 cents a share, which topped analysts’ forecast of 35 cents, according to Thomson Financial. The fourth quarter is typically Oracle’s strongest.
Oracle’s annual revenue increased $3.6 billion to $18 billion.
Overall sales of new software licenses, a closely watched measure in the corporate software business, grew 17 percent to $2.48 billion. New license revenue from database and middleware increased 18 percent, while license revenue from its application software was up 13 percent, somewhat lower than some analysts had expected. Services revenue increased 26 percent, to $1.1 billion.
Oracle’s co-president and chief financial officer, Safra A. Catz, told analysts that she expected sales of new software licenses to increase 20 percent to 30 percent in the first quarter compared with the quarter a year ago, and that revenue would increase 19 percent to 21 percent.
The company expected earnings of 21 cents a share, excluding items, in the first quarter, largely in line with estimates.
Shares of Oracle rose more than 1 percent in after-hours trading, after release of the report, after declining 32 cents to close at $19.16 in regular trading. The stock has risen about 12 percent this year and last week closed at a 52-week-high.
In recent weeks, several analysts issued research notes speculating that Oracle had closed several large transactions that would buoy its fourth-quarter results. But Ms. Catz largely dismissed the reports. “Q4 was very broad-based and not dependent on any very large transactions,” she said.
Oracle executives said that the company appeared to be taking market share from SAP of Germany and I.B.M., as well as from BEA Systems.
Charles Phillips, Oracle’s co-president, said the strategy of combining technology from acquisitions was proving more successful than SAP’s strategy of “trying to build everything themselves using a 1970s-era proprietary programming language.”
The quarter’s strong performance was attributed in part to revenue from products that Oracle did not own last year, as well as to sales of technology Oracle acquired through its purchase of Siebel in 2005 and PeopleSoft in 2004. In the quarter, Oracle closed its acquisition of Hyperion Solutions, a maker of software for reporting financial information that it bought for $3.3 billion.
In May, Oracle announced plans to purchase the Agile Software Corporation, a maker of product tracking software, for $495 million.
Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive, told analysts in the conference call that Oracle would continue acquiring companies to enter new markets and bolster its product line.
In March, Oracle filed suit against SAP and accused it of intruding into its computer systems to carry out corporate theft. The companies are fierce competitors in the market for software that corporations use to manage finances, human resources and sales.