Roundup: Sycamore, Agile, Serena exceed estimates
Sycamore Networks (Nasdaq: SCMR) edged past estimates in first full quarter as a publicly-traded company.
After market close Thursday, the network equipment vendor reported fiscal second quarter net income of $1.4 million, or a penny per share, excluding special charges. First Call's survey of eight analysts predicted a breakeven results on an earnings per share basis, for the quarter ended Jan. 29.
Including charges of $3.1 million related to stock compensation, Sycamore lost $1.6 million, or a penny per share, in the second quarter.
Second quarter revenue increased to $29 million, a 49 percent gain from $19.5 million in the fiscal first quarter. Gross margin was basically flat sequentially at 47 percent.
Also Thursday, Sycamore registered for a secondary offering of 15 million shares, with 12.4 million coming from the company and 2.6 million from shareholders. The underwriting team includes seven investment banks: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter; Credit Suisse First Boston; Lehman Brothers; J.P. Morgan & Co.; Dain Rauscher Wessels; Robertson Stephens; and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC.
Sycamore, which went public almost four months ago, reported a weighted average of 184.23 million shares outstanding in the second quarter.
Shares of Sycamore plunged in afterhours activity to 110. The stock closed Thursday's regular trading at 122 1/2, up 6 7/16 for the session.
Other companies reporting quarterly results Thursday:
The vendor of software for supply chain collaboration and procurement reported a fiscal third quarter loss of $1.71 million, or 8 cents per share, excluding amortization and one-time charges. First Call's survey of five analysts predicted a loss of 18 cents per share for the quarter ended Jan. 31.
Including $6 million in goodwill writedowns, $4 million in costs related to options compensation and $1.3 million in acquisition-related charges, Agile lost $12.93 million, or 61 cents per share.
Third quarter revenue rose 86.5 percent year-over-year to $8.56 million.
Agile also announced a 2-for-1 stock split, to be distributed Mar. 16 for shareholders of Mar. 3 record. The split will be the company's first since going public last August.
Shares of Agile rose to as high as 171 1/2 in afterhours activity. The stock closed Thursday's regular trading at 161, down 1 43/64 for the session.
After market close Thursday, the world's biggest distributor of technology products reported fourth quarter net income of $74.99 million, or 51 cents per share, including reorganization costs of $9.35 million and a gain of $125 million related to the sale of 35 percent of Ingram Micro's stake in Softbank. ZDNet's parent, Ziff-Davis, is majority-owned by Softbank.
First Call's survey of 10 analysts predicted a profit of 24 cents per share.
Shares of Ingram Micro rose to 15 1/2 in afterhours activity. The stock closed Thursday's regular trading at 14 5/16, down 1/2 for the session.
Ingram Micro predicted first quarter net income would range between $88 million and $94 million, or 60 to 64 cents per share. That figure includes $69 million, or 47 cents per share, related to another sale of Softbank stock in January.
The company posted a fourth quarter operating loss of $36.5 million, or 24 cents per share, excluding reorganization expenses. Fourth quarter revenue increased 26 percent year-over-year to $7.83 billion. U.S. sales increased 18 percent, European sales rose 19 percent and revenue from the rest of the world grew 108 percent.
Gross margin fell to 3.67 percent from 6.24 percent a year earlier. Ingram Micro took a $102 million provision to cover excess and slow-moving inventory, and reduced compensation from vendors. The company also set aside $41 million for doubtful accounts, largely because of increased product returns from retailers.
Ingram Micro said it expects to improve margins in the first half of 2000. "As we enter 2000, we are implementing business changes to improve margins for our services by increasing our prices to include these higher costs as we also continue to tighten our business processes with our suppliers and our customers," said Jerre Stead, chairman and CEO. "Our first priority is to improve profitability by marketing our products and services to customers and vendors that appropriately compensate us for our valuable services."
Excluding one-time charges, Ingram Micro saw full year earnings of $192 million, or $1.30 per share, on sales of $28.1 billion.
The provider of business software and consulting services reported fourth quarter net income of $6.6 million, or 25 cents per share, excluding amortization and special charges. First Call's survey of three analysts predicted a profit of 20 cents per share for the quarter ended Jan. 31.
Including all items, Serena earned $6 million, or 23 cents per share in the fourth quarter.
Fourth quarter revenue rose 42 percent year-over-year to $24.4 million. Software revenue increased 44 percent to $15.1 million. Maintenance revenue grew 65 percent to $8 million.
For the full year, Serena earned $17.9 million, or 69 cents per share, on revenue of $75.4 million.
The vendor of products for videoconferencing and other visual communications reported a fiscal second quarter net loss of $4 million, or 16 cents per share. Analysts' loss estimates ranged between 12 and 14 cents per share.
The company said much of the second quarter loss was fueled by spending on Internet businesses. On a cash flow basis, Vtel earned $2.4 million.
Second quarter revenue of $37.3 million beat analyst forecasts, said Stephen Von Rump, Vtel's CEO and president. Gross margin of 38.2 percent was down from 41.8 percent a year earlier. The company blamed higher inventory reserves for pushing margins lower, although some of that was offset by a reduction in operating expenses.>