Computer Horizons meets Street
The computer and network services firm reports fourth quarter revenues of $143 million, a 44-percent jump from the year-ago quarter, helping the company to meet Street expectations.
Excluding charges and merger-related expenses, Computer Horizons reported net income was $12.2 million, or 38 cents per share, in the quarter compared with $9.1 million, or 29 cents per share, in the comparable 1997 quarter. The earnings per share was inline with a consensus of what was expected by analysts polled by First Call.
For fiscal 1998, revenues increased 47 percent to $5.1 million from $350.3 million in 1997. Excluding merger-related expenses, the gain on the sale of the Birla joint venture and certain other nonrecurring expenses, net income for the year increased 79 percent to $45.7 million, or $1.42 per share, as compared with $25.5 million, or 88 cents per share, in fiscal 1997.
"We are extremely pleased with our solid financial performance in 1998 having reached our one-half billion dollar revenue goal," Computer Horizons chairman John Cassese said in a statement. "Computer Horizons is rapidly executing on its strategy of transforming from a supplemental supplier to a strategic partner to our customers."
Cassese said the company's internal investments in technology skills and experience in large-scale project management position Computer Horizons well to capitalize on the growing demand for e-business and related services.
During the fourth quarter, the company combined its previously separate Staffing and Solutions divisions, together with its Canadian and United Kingdom operations into a worldwide IT Services group. Computer Horizons also said that it will operate its Princeton Softech, RPM, training and education, ERP, and CRM divisions under a group they are calling Emerging Practices.
"We believe that this organizational structure will better facilitate our cross-selling efforts across all of our business units and enhance our transition to a strategic supplier, as we can more efficiently deliver an integrated suite of service offerings to our customers," said Cassese.
Computer Horizons, founded in 1969, is a diversified information technology services company with more than 4,100 billable consultants worldwide. It provides clients with resource advanced technology solutions to business problems through applications development, client/server migration, network management, and legacy systems maintenance.
Shares of Computer Horizon edged slightly higher, rising 0.73 percent to 17.19. The stock has traded as high as 53.5 and as low as 15.5 during the past 52 weeks.