Novell Inc rose more than 4 percent on Friday after it reported a better than expected profit and rising sales for its second quarter.

Novell shares rose 30 cents, or 4.47 percent to $7.01 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq stock market.

Late Thursday, the second largest U.S. seller of the Linux operating system said net income for the quarter was $5.9 million, or 2 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.9 million, or 1 cent per share in the year-earlier period.

Excluding costs such as stock-based compensation, it earned 6 cents per share, beating Wall Street estimates of 6 cents per share.

Revenue rose 1.7 percent to $236 million compared with $232 million a year ago.

Our business continues to gain momentum, with strong product revenue growth in Linux, Identity and Systems and Resource Management, said Ron Hovsepian, President and CEO of Novell. We are encouraged by our results and remain confident we will achieve our financial objectives for fiscal 2008.

The company had previously forecast full-year net revenue between $940 million and $970 million.

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