Brocade beats 4Q forecasts, sets 2-for-1 split

Brocade Communications Systems (Nasdaq: BRCD) beat consensus analyst estimates in the fourth quarter and set a stock split.

After market close Wednesday, the maker of switches for Fibre Channel storage area networks posted fiscal fourth quarter net income of $27.2 million, or 22 cents per share. First Call's survey of 15 analysts predicted a profit of 20 cents per share for the quarter ended Oct. 28.

Also Wednesday, Brocade announced a 2-for-1 stock split, to take effect Dec. 22 for shareholders of Dec. 11 record. Brocade ended the fourth quarter with 124.1 million shares.

Shares of Brocade dropped to 143.75 in afterhours activity on the Island electronic communications network, immediately following the release of quarterly results. Brocade slid 7.25 to 153.75 in Wednesday's regular trading, ahead of the earnings report.

Fourth quarter revenue increased 339 percent year-over-year to $132.1 million, easily surpassing Wall Street's consensus expectation of $118.9 million. But beating the estimate hardly surprised many Wall Street observers.

"Given the business momentum we have been seeing, we believe BRCD will meet or exceed our raised forecast," Banc of America Securities analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a research note released prior to Brocade's earnings report.

Brocade now claims nearly 60 percent of the its storage area networking market, including a gain of almost 5 percent in the fourth quarter.>