(RTTNews) - Enterprise content management software provider Open Text Corp. (OTEX: News ,OTC.TO: News ), on Tuesday reported an 88% plunge in profit for the first quarter from last year, hurt by one-time charges that offset a 16% growth in revenues. Excluding one-time items, adjusted earnings per share for the quarter grew 9.4%, and matched analysts' consensus estimate.

The Waterloo, Canada-based company's net income for the first quarter fell to US$1.73 million, or US$0.03 per share, from US$14.66 million, or US$0.28 per share, in the prior-year quarter.

The results for the latest quarter include special charges of US$18.59 million.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the quarter increased to US$32.8 million, or US$0.58 per share, from US$28.2 million, or US$0.53 per share, in the same period last year. On average, fourteen analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn US$0.58 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time charges and gains.

Quarterly revenue climbed 16% to US$211.42 million from US$182.62 million in the same period last year, and beat analysts' consensus estimate of US$209.94 million for the quarter.

John Shackleton, President and Chief Executive Officer of Open Text, said, "We met our profit and revenue goals in what has seasonally been our toughest quarter. License revenue fell short of our expectations, mainly due to deferred purchase decisions for our Web Content Management (WCM) products. We are seeing a continued demand for compliance solutions, as well as companies laying the groundwork for ECM 2.0 solutions."

License revenues for the quarter declined 6% to US$47.33 million from US$50.07 million in the year-ago quarter, mainly due to the deferred purchase decisions for the company's web content management products. Meanwhile, customer support revenues for the quarter rose to US$123.65 million from US$98.43 million last year. Service and other revenues increased to US$40.44 million from US$34.12 million in the same quarter last year.
The company's gross profit for the quarter was US$139.90 million, up from US$125.69 million in the year-ago quarter.
Total operating expenses for the quarter rose to US$135.11 million from US$102.71 million in the prior-year quarter.

Income from operations dropped to US$4.79 million from US$22.98 million a year ago.

Open Text said it intends to renew its normal course issuer bid through the facilities of the Nasdaq Global Select Market, which will target the repurchase of up to 5% of the outstanding common shares of the company at the beginning of the bid.

To receive FREE breaking news email alerts for Open Text Corp and others in your portfolio

 1   2   Next Page