COGN earnings kickstarts the stock.........Tuesday December 21, 6:48 pm Eastern Time
FOCUS-Cognos profit arrives just ahead of forecasts
(Adds company and analyst's comment throughout.)
OTTAWA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Software developer Cognos Inc. (Toronto:CSN.TO -
news) (NasdaqNM:COGN - news) posted third-quarter earnings on Tuesday that came in
slightly ahead of what analysts had anticipated.
Net income totaled $13.9 million, or 32 cents a share, for the quarter ended on November 30, down from $15.9 million, or 36
cents a share last year, said the Ottawa-based company in a statement.
The firm had guided analysts to forecast, on average, 31 cents a share. Cognos is the world's biggest independent vendor of
business intelligence software that accesses and analyses corporate data.
Quarterly revenue at $97.8 million hit a new company record, up 28 percent from a year-earlier figure of $76.3 million, the firm
said.
''Overall, we're very pleased with this quarter and the direction that we've set,'' Alan Rottenberg, the company's senior
vice-president, told Reuters.
The company had invested heavily in the third quarter, hiring about 100 people on top of the 2,000 already employed,
Rottenberg said.
Business intelligence is a key component in electronic commerce, which has been driven by the growth of the Internet,
Rottenberg added.
The other part of the business is the company's mature products, used to build custom analysis tools. Sale of those products
declined from a year earlier, partly because companies have been spending less due to Y2K computer bug concerns.
In the fourth quarter, ''we will continue to invest, to make sure that we can capture as much of the market as possible, in terms
of growth,'' Rottenberg said. Cognos also plans to expand channel capacity.
One analyst, who declined to be identified, pointed out that the company's business intelligence software, which made up 92
percent of third-quarter revenue, reached $83.7 million, higher than his prediction of $80.1 million. ''That's what makes the
stock go up tomorrow,'' the analyst predicted.
The earnings news was released after Toronto's stock market closed on Tuesday. Cognos shares dipped C$2.55 to C$55.70
on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
"Well let's see how the street likes these numbers. Comparing last reported qtr of
Business Object to Cognos's BI revenue, this is how it looks..
BOBJ - Last Qtr. 59.8 million
COGN - Last Qtr. 83.7 million
BOBJ - Last 9 months - 166.8 million
COGN - Last 9 months - 223.9 million" |
