Payment processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc. (JKHY), Tuesday reported an increase in profit for the fourth quarter, mainly on higher support and service revenues.
Support and service revenues, which contributes majority of total revenues, rose 8 percent to $236.8 million, with electronic payment services reporting the largest growth of 15 percent from last year. License revenues dropped 5 percent to $14.0 million, while hardware sales rose 6 percent.
Jack Henry, which provides ATM and credit card transaction processing, bill payment and other financial services, said its revenues grew 7 percent to $266.6 million from $249.3 million last year. Analysts on consensus estimated revenues of $265.34 million for the quarter.
Gross margins, or gross profit as a percent of sales, dropped to 41 percent from 42 percent last year.
Monett, Missouri-based Jack Henry's fourth-quarter profit improved to $43.3 million or $0.50 per share from $36.6 million or $0.42 per share last year. On average, 10 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.46 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Chief Executive Jack Prim said, "We are very pleased to announce record revenue, earnings and backlog of business for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year. This also marks the first time we have closed a fiscal year with over $1 billion in total revenue and company market capitalization of over $3 billion. We look forward to continued steady progress in fiscal 2013."
JKHY closed Tuesday's trading at $35.90, down 0.03%, on a volume of 0.3 million shares. The stock gained $0.05 or 0.14% in after-hours trade.
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