AP Photo/Eric Risberg

Oracle just reported earnings for the quarter ended Nov. 30, and it's a beat — the first one in a while after three straight quarters of misses.

The stock has surged more than 5% after hours on the pleasant surprise for investors.

Non-GAAP EPS came in a penny ahead of expectations at $0.96, and adjusted revenue was $9.61 billion versus expectations of $9.50 billion.

Non-GAAP EPS would have been up 5% if it weren't for the effect of a strengthening U.S. dollar from last year, Oracle says.

The all-important software and cloud revenue segment was up 5% to $7.3 billion. Oracle is increasingly making more services available online, rather than exclusively selling them into customers' data centers as it traditionally has. Larry Ellison said in a statement that new cloud bookings would be "well over" $1 billion next year.

Last quarter, Oracle posted its third earnings miss in a row, and Larry Ellison stepped down as CEO, handing the reins over to two trusted lieutenants, Safra Katz and Mark Hurd, who are co-CEOs. Ellison is still executive chairman and chief technology officer, though, so he's not exactly sitting on the sidelines.

Still, this is a good first quarter for the two new CEOs.

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