By Maria Armental
Citrix Systems Inc.'s profit fell in the first quarter as the
technology company recorded higher costs related to its
restructuring.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company, which earlier this month
warned that results for the quarter would fall short of
projections, on Wednesday cut its outlook for the year and issued a
forecast for the current quarter that fell short of analysts'
projections.
Citrix said it expects to make 80 cents to 83 cents on net
revenue of $785 million to $795 million in the current quarter and
$3.55 to $3.60 a share on $3.22 billion to $3.25 billion in net
revenue for the year, compared with its earlier view of $3.60 to
$3.65 a share on revenue of $3.29 billion to $3.33 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters project 86 cents a share on
$815.1 million in the second quarter and $3.53 a share on $3.26
billion for the year.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company specializes in
virtualization, networking and cloud infrastructure and has
benefited from increased demand for desktop visualization, a
crucial step in cloud computing.
Last quarter, the company moved to restructure operations,
targeting $90 million to $100 million in annual savings before
taxes.
It had estimated the move, which would affect about 700
full-time workers and 200 contractor positions, would cost it $40
million to $45 million in severance payouts and $9 million to $10
million to consolidate leased facilities.
Overall, in the latest period, Citrix reported a profit of $28.9
million, or 18 cents a share, down from $55.9 million, or 30 cents
a share, a year ago. Excluding stock-based compensation,
restructuring charges and other items, profit rose to 65 cents a
share from 64 cents a year earlier.
Revenue rose 1% to $760.8 million.
The company had projected 63 cents to 65 cents a share on
revenue of $755 million to $760 million, down from its earlier view
of 70 cents to 72 cents a share on revenue of $780 million to $790
million.
Professional-services revenue--which includes consulting,
product training and certification--fell 13%, and revenue from
product and licenses, or new product purchases, fell 12%.
Meanwhile, software-as-a-service revenue rose 8%, and revenue from
license updates and maintenance, which includes annuity revenue
from subscriptions paid when new licenses are purchased, rose
8%.
Deferred revenue rose 7% from the year-ago period to $1.5
billion at the end of the quarter.
Gross margin improved to 82.6% from 82.1% a year earlier.
Shares rose 1.25% to $65.58 in recent after-hours trading on the
better-than-projected results for the quarter ended.
Through Wednesday's close, the company's stock was up 13% over
the past 12 months.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
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