Novell 1st-Quarter Profit More Than Doubles on Strong Sales
Provo, Utah, Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Novell Inc.'s fiscal first-quarter profit
more than doubled, as the No. 2 maker of networking software sold more
Internet-based products and benefited from a delay at rival Microsoft Corp.
Net income for the period ended Jan. 31 rose to $28.9 million, or 8 cents a
share, from $14.1 million, or 4 cents, in the year-earlier period. Novell was
expected to earn 9 cents a share, the average estimate of six analysts polled
by First Call Corp. That estimate was raised from 8 cents on Feb. 22.
Big companies are buying more of Novell's Netware 5.0 product, which
includes so-called network-directory software that Microsoft doesn't yet offer
for its Windows NT operating system. Novell has been battling Microsoft in
the market for directory software, which lets companies manage networks
more efficiently.
''Netware 5.0 has all the momentum right now,'' said Joel Achramowicz, an
analyst at Preferred Capital Markets, who rates Novell ''strong buy.''
Revenue rose 13 percent to $285.8 million from $252.0 million a year ago.
Provo, Utah-based Novell rose 1 7/8 to 20 7/8 in late trading of 19.6 million.
16:22:03 02/25/1999 |
