EMC cruises past estimates in second quarter

Data storage giant EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) beat Wall Street's consensus estimates Wednesday with second quarter earnings of $429 million, or 19 cents a share, on sales of $2.15 billion.

Earnings tracking firm First Call Corp. predicted earnings of 17 cents a share. EMC's second quarter earnings were up 50 percent from a year ago as sales jumped 30 percent.

The second quarter results were propelled by EMC's storage revenue, which jumped 43 percent from a year ago to $2 billion. EMC said its storage revenue grew at its fastest clip in five years. Enterprise storage software revenue was up 96 percent, while enterprise storage systems revenue and midrange storage revenue, gained 36 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

EMC reported strong growth abroad. Year-over-year storage revenue growth was 42 percent in Europe, Middle East and Africa and 111 percent in Asia Pacific.

CEO Mike Ruettgers said the company continued to gain market share in the second quarter amid strong demand for its products, including CLARiiON midrange storage systems, Symmetrix systems and Celerra.

EMC ended the quarter with nearly $3.7 billion in cash.