By Maria Armental

Oracle Corp.'s revenue topped $10 billion in the most recent quarter, putting the software giant on track for a record revenue year, and the board raised the authorization for share repurchases by $20 billion.

Company officials have pointed to accelerating revenue trends, partly tied to the pandemic, and noted that Oracle's Generation 2 Cloud Infrastructure demand, for example, was blowing out internal forecasts and hastening expansion plans.

Oracle Gen2 cloud infrastructure revenue again more than doubled in the third quarter from the year earlier, Larry Ellison, Oracle's chairman and chief technology officer, said in a statement.

Oracle shares closed down Wednesday at $72.12 and fell 2.7% to $70.17 in after-hours trading.

"We are opening new regions as fast as we can to support our rapidly growing multi-billion dollar infrastructure business," Mr. Ellison said.

Overall, third-quarter profit surged to $5.02 billion from $2.57 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis, profit was $1.68, or $1.16 as adjusted.

Revenue rose to $10.09 billion from $9.8 billion a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected a profit of 86 cents a share, or $1.11 a share as adjusted, and $10.07 billion in revenue.

The business software giant and its founder, Mr. Ellison, have been pillars of the Bay Area, moved corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas, in December, saying the move would offer more flexibility to employees on where and how they work.

Oracle said it would maintain major hubs, including in Redwood City, Calif., where it was previously based, and that depending on their job, employees would be able to choose office location as well as continue to work remotely part time or full time.

"By implementing a more modern approach to work, we expect to further improve our employees' quality of life and quality of output," the company said in a securities filing.

In addition to boosting the share repurchase authorization, Oracle's board raised the quarter dividend by 8 cents, or about 33%, to 32 cents a share. Payouts under the raised dividend will be made on April 22 for shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 8.

Mr. Ellison, Oracle's largest stockholder, wasn't part of the discussions or vote on the matter, the company said.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-10-21 1648ET