Red Hat (NYSE:RHT)
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Red Hat Inc.'s (RHT) fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 37% as the company again posted better-than-expected results on growing revenue and higher margins.

Red Hat's growth was largely driven by market share gains, executives said, but that there were signs corporations, which for a year have been reining in technology spending, are thinking about committing capital to projects again. Executives added also that the uncertainty over the future of Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA), which Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is in the process of buying, may have helped revenues.

Shares rose 5% to $26.05 in after-hours trading. At the close, the stock was up 88% this year.

The open-software developer's results have held up relatively well in recent quarters, as the bulk of its revenue is recurring and subscription based. Goldman Sachs said earlier this month it expected the upcoming server cycle to be healthy, due to improved information technology spending and pent-up demand.

Red Hat's core Linux product is free, but the company makes its money on providing maintenance and support to corporations and large organizations who use it to operate computers.

On a conference call following the results, Chief Executive Jim Whitehurst said that there were "signs of life" returning to the corporate technology spending environment, and corporations were discussing freeing capital for new technology projects. He added, though, that "we didn't see that in terms of new volumes."

Uncertainty over the future of Sun may also be helping, Whitehurst said. Oracle agreed to buy Sun in April, but the deal is awaiting regulatory approval by European Commission antitrust authorities. Earlier this week, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said that the delay is costing Oracle $100 million a month.

For the quarter ended Aug. 31, Red Hat reported earnings of $28.9 million, or 15 cents a share, up from $21.1 million, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier. The company repurchased $47 million of common stock in the quarter. Excluding stock compensation and amortization expenses as well as a tax benefit in the latest quarter, earnings rose to 16 cents from 14 cents.

Revenue improved 12%, to $183.6 million, as subscription revenue increased 15%. Nearly half of the company's revenue is from outside the U.S.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share earnings of 15 cents on revenue of $179 million.

Gross margin climbed to 84.5% from 83.3%.

In July, Red Hat replaced CIT Group Inc. (CIT) in the S&P 500-stock index.

- By Jessica Hodgson, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6455; jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com

- By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2480; john.kell@dowjones.com