Sycamore, Network Appliance stir after hours on earnings news
Earnings news helps lift shares of Sycamore Networks but pulls down the stock of Network Appliance in after-market activity.
Sycamore, a maker of optical networking equipment, rose $7.44, or about 12 percent, to $71.88 in after-hours trading, according to Island ECN, an electronic trading network. During regular trading, the stock gained $3.94 to $64.44.
Excluding charges, the company reported fiscal first-quarter pro forma net income of $6 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a pro forma net loss of $4.1 million, or 2 cents a share, for the year-ago quarter.
Revenue increased to $120.4 million, compared with $19.5 million in the year-ago quarter and $90.4 million in the fourth quarter.
Wall Street expected Sycamore to report per-share earnings of 1 cent, excluding charges, according to a survey of 11 analysts by First Call/Thomson Financial.
Including the charges, Sycamore recorded a net loss of $26.2 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $7.4 million, or 4 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.
Sycamore noted the charges as the amortization of deferred stock compensation, payroll tax on stock option exercises and acquisition costs.
The Chelmsford, Mass.-based company also said in a statement released after the markets closed that the earnings include financial results from Sirocco Systems, an acquisition that Sycamore closed Sept. 7.
Network Appliance also beat analysts' expectations for the fiscal 2001 second quarter. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company reported pro forma net income of $36.6 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with pro forma net income of $16.1 million, or 5 cents a share, for the same period a year ago. Revenue increased to $260.8 million from $124.7 million a year ago.
Wall Street predicted that the maker of computer data storage equipment would post earnings of 9 cents a share, the consensus estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial.
In after-hours trading, however, Network Appliance fell $9.25, or about 10 percent, to $87 on a volume of 755,500 shares. During the day, the company's shares rose $11.75, or nearly 14 percent, to $96.25.
"We were expecting a little more from the top line," said Bill Lewis, an analyst at Chase Hambrecht & Quist. "People are concerned that the party might be over."
In the past 52 weeks, Network Appliance shares have traded as high as $152.75 and as low as $18.31.