Red Hat, one of the largest software vendors based on Linux, reported on better-than-expected quarterly results and increased its annual forecast.

As a result of the second fiscal quarter, expired for the company on August 31, 2017, Red Hat's net profit rose 64.8% to $ 96.9 million. Also reported is Adjusted Profit (Non-GAAP) of 77 cents per share and revenue growth of 21%, to $ 723.4 million.

Wall Street analysts forecasted adjusted earnings of 67 cents per share and revenues of $ 699 million.

"The high demand for our technologies that support the operation of hybrid cloud systems contributed to accelerated revenue growth in the first half of the year," said Red Hat president and CEO Jim Whitehurst,.

Another factor behind the financial rise of Red Hat is the growing popularity of its platform for enterprise users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). In the second fiscal quarter, revenue from the sale of software subscriptions, the bulk of which is provided by RHEL, increased by 20% to $ 637.6 million.

Based on the results, Red Hat revised its annual forecast to a larger level and now expects revenues of $ 2.88 to $ 2.9 billion, while the previous estimate included sales of $ 2.79-2.83 billion. Also, the company expects an adjusted profit of $ 2.77-2.79 per share (instead of the original 2.66-2.77 dollars).