(Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp. reported quarterly sales in line with analysts’ estimates after its cloud business failed to meet expectations for higher growth. The shares declined in extended trading.

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Fiscal third-quarter revenue increased 18% to $12.4 billion, just short of analysts’ average estimate of $12.41 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, was $1.22 a share. Analysts, on average, projected $1.20 a share.

Cloud revenue — the highly watched segment that Oracle has been trying to expand — rose 45% to $4.1 billion in the period ended Feb. 28, the Austin, Texas-based company said Thursday in a statement.

While Oracle’s cloud infrastructure business — renting computing power and storage — has been a relative laggard in the market, analysts have been optimistic the services are gaining customers and helping accelerate growth. The software giant has employed aggressive marketing and favorable pricing in an attempt to win clients from larger competitors Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc., which have seen cloud division growth slowdowns in recent quarters.

Large cloud deals, including one announced with Uber Technologies Inc., increased investor excitement ahead of earnings, wrote JP Morgan’s Mark Murphy. Analysts at Mizuho Securities said in advance of the results that Wall Street’s estimates for Oracle’s cloud business “appear conservative.”

But the results looked like “a little bit of a disappointment,” Dan Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Shares fell about 3.5% in extended trading after closing at $86.87 in New York. Oracle has been one of the steadiest tech stocks over the last year, rising 14% during the past 12 months.