cole contemplating split (or maybe that should be past tense) ...
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Legato 4th-Qtr Profit Doubles as Sales Rise 71%
Palo Alto, California, Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Legato Systems Inc., which makes software that backs up and recovers data, said its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled on strong sales of its programs and revenue from services.
Net income climbed to $9.58 million, or 24 cents a share, from $3.81 million, or 10 cents, a year earlier. It was expected to earn 22 cents, the average estimate of analysts polled by First Call Corp. Sales rose 71 percent to $44.5 million from $26.1 million.
Legato shares have almost tripled in the past 12 months as corporations snapped up its storage-management software that works with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT and Unix-based operating systems. Legato also has created a 125-strong direct sales force since early 1998. ''Our future looks pretty rosy,'' Chief Executive Louis Cole said in an interview. ''The demand is there for our types of software.''
The Palo Alto, California-based company said product revenue rose 62 percent to $33.6 million from $20.8 million, while revenue from services doubled to $10.9 million from $5.3 million. Services accounted for about 25 percent of all revenue. Cole wants to increase that to 30 percent in the future.
Cole also said Legato is considering a stock split. The last time that the company announced a stock split, on March 16, its shares were at 56 1/8. Legato rose 1 7/8 to 65 1/2 today. ''With the stock price getting up there, that's something we do want to look at,'' Cole said.
Before the earnings report, analysts expected Legato to earn 22 cents a share in the first quarter, and Cole expects those estimates to rise.
Legato released earnings after the close of U.S. trading. |
