Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) reported earnings (pdf) on Thursday after the market closed. For the first quarter, the software company saw a top-line increase of 18%, with revenues coming in at $5.3 billion. On an adjusted basis, earnings per share grew 32% to $0.29 per share. Oracle beat expectations by 2 cents.

Moving to the statement of cash flows, I see nice growth there as well. Net cash from operations increased almost 20% to $3.2 billion. And the operating margin on an adjusted basis was nothing less than a delight as it went up by 350 basis points. That was a stellar increase, and the press release said that, at 40%, it was a record for the company. As far as I can tell, Oracle is doing a superb job of delivering some solid fundamentals for its shareholders. In fact, in the after-hours session on Thursday following this report, the company's stock traded up by nearly 7%. This morning, it is up 12% in pre-market trade.

I thought management did a great job in the quarter. But broken record that I am, I'll say that, if I had to buy in this sector, I'd probably first think of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), or maybe even IBM (NYSE: IBM). Consider that both Microsoft and Oracle have traded over the past 52 weeks in, relatively speaking, tight ranges. I'd rather get a quarterly dividend from a quality tech stock in this environment than just put my money down in anticipation of only a capital gain. It's just the way I'm thinking right now.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.