Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as the business software maker's years-long efforts to switch to the cloud helped boost revenue.

 The company's shares were up 1.3 per cent in after-market trading. They had gained about 37 per cent since the beginning of the year.

 Total revenue in the company's cloud business surged 51.4 per cent to US$1.47 billion in the three months ended Aug. 31, while revenue in its traditional software licensing business, by far still its largest, rose 1.6 per cent to US$5.92 billion.

 The company - a late entrant to the cloud market - has been aggressively ramping up the business as more and more clients ditch the costlier software licensing model.

 In May, the No.2 U.S. telecom services provider AT&T Inc agreed to move some of its large-scale databases to Oracle's cloud platform.

 Oracle said in late August it would hire more than 5,000 engineers, consultants, sales and support people this year to bolster the fast-growing cloud business.

 "The sustained hyper-growth in our multi-billion dollar cloud business continues to drive Oracle's overall revenue and earnings higher and higher," CEO Safra Catz said in a statement.

 The company's net income rose to US$2.21 billion, or 52 cents per share, in the first quarter, from US$1.83 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.

 On an adjusted basis, Oracle earned 62 cents per share.

 Total adjusted revenue rose to US$9.21 billion from US$8.61 billion.

 Analysts on average had estimated the company to report a profit of 60 cents per share and adjusted revenue of US$9.03 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.