CA results fall below analyst consensus
Computer Associates last week said its second-quarter profit, excluding acquisition charges, was likely to be just below the level expected by Wall Street.
Computer Associates (CA) last week said its second-quarter profit, excluding acquisition charges, was likely to be just below the level expected by Wall Street.
The company said that analysts' expectations varied widely because of market uncertainty in the enterprise software marketplace. However, First Call/Thomson Financial, which tracks profit expectations, said the consensus for profit was about 56 cents per share.
CA said total contract value for the period ended 30 September was expected to be between $1.67bn and $1.70bn, exceeding the $1.61bn recorded in the second quarter of last year and the $1.28bn posted last quarter.
But the firm's shares closed down last week in regular New York Stock Exchange trading and trading was halted after-hours. The company's 52-week low was $23 and its high was $79.
"We are very pleased with our performance given the current business environment," Sanjay Kumar, Computer Associates's chief executive, claimed in a statement. "As preliminary results would indicate, the entire CA team pulled together to deliver approximately $400m of sequential growth in contract value, quarter over quarter."
"While we are pleased with the progress we have made against our recovery plan, we intend to stay focused on the challenges and opportunities ahead," he added. CA said the figures were preliminary and could vary when it reports final results on 24 October.
Meanwhile, InterBiz, the ebusiness applications division of CA, last week introduced its InterBiz Store for business-to-business and business-to-consumer web-based 'store fronts', and InterBiz Procure for web-based procurement.
According to the company, its new products use BizWorks, CA's ebusiness intelligence software suite, which is designed to help companies to develop from traditional bricks-and-mortar infrastructures to become 'bricks-and-clicks' entities.
InterBiz Store also provides support for the CA Data Transport Service, while InterBiz Procure provides a strategic way to manage supplier relationships and speed up the procurement process.