F5 Networks Shares Rise as Profit Tops Analysts’ Estimates
April 21, 2011, 4:14 PM EDTBy Danielle Kucera
(Updates with closing share price.)
April 21 (Bloomberg) -- F5 Networks Inc., a Seattle-based maker of software used for managing computer networks, climbed 7.2 percent after fiscal second-quarter profit topped estimates, buoyed by the growth of cloud computing.
F5 Networks shares jumped $7.13 to $106.87 at 4 p.m. in New York trading. The company reported earnings yesterday after the close of trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The company’s shares have advanced 60 percent in the past 12 months amid optimism it will benefit as Web traffic rises and as more companies shift to so-called cloud computing, or the delivery of software, storage and computing power over the Internet. F5 forecast profit of as much as 91 cents a share for the third quarter, compared with the 90-cent average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
“Reporting an in-line revenue quarter with better EPS due to lower operating expenses and guidance that’s relatively in- line looks better than the market expected,” Alkesh Shah, an analyst at Evercore Partners Inc. in New York, said in an e- mail.
Excluding certain costs, second-quarter profit rose to $71.5 million, or 88 cents a share, from $45.2 million, or 56 cents, a year earlier, the company said yesterday in a statement. Sales in the period, which ended March 31, increased 35 percent to $277.6 million. Analysts on average predicted profit of 85 cents on revenue of $277.3 million.
Second-quarter net income rose 68 percent to $55.6 million, or 68 cents a share, from $33.1 million, or 41 cents, a year earlier, the company said.
--Editors: Jillian Ward, Niamh Ring
To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Kucera in New York at dkucera6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Thomas Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
