Platinum tops Street estimates

Platinum Technology continues to wow Wall Street with earnings at or above estimates.

The Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois-based maker of IT infrastructure management software posted profits its third quarter ended September 30 of $21.6 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, from $13.8 million the like quarter last year, not including one-time charges. Including the charges, profits for the period were $19.4 million, or 21 cents per share.

It is the ninth consecutive quarter that Platinum has met or beat Wall Street consensus expectations. Wall Street estimated earnings for Platinum would be 21.3 cents per share for the quarter.

Revenue for the period was $250.3 million, a 31 percent hike from last year's like quarter sales of $190.8 million. For the nine-month period, revenues were $653.5 million, up 32 percent from revenues of $496.2 million the first nine months of last year.

Profits for the first nine months not including merger and other one-time charges were $37.4 million, 41 cents per share, up from $10.7 million, or 13 cents per share, the same period last year. Including the charges, Platinum posted a loss of $35.2 million, or 42 cents per share, compared to a loss of $84.8 million, or $1.10 per share, last year's first nine months.

Platinum has been on a buying spree the past year to boost its offerings. In August, the firm shelled out approximately $400 million for security systems maker Memco Software. And in January, Platinum traded about $70 million in its common stock to acquire Learmonth and Burchett Management Systems (LBMS), a maker of process management software.

Platinum in the past year, also got a boost from Intel. The microprocessor giant Intel took a stake in Platinum last December, estimated to be less than 5 percent, after Platinum purchased Intel's LANDesk Configuration Manager software.