Shares of Progress Software (PRGS) were halted at 4:27 pm, Eastern, just before the company reported fiscal Q3 revenue and profit ahead of estimates but forecast this quarter and the year below expectations.
The stock is expected to start trading again at 5 pm, Eastern. It closed up 42 cents, or 2%, at $19.39.
Revenue in the three months ended in August fell slightly, year over year, to $128.4 million, yielding EPS of 31 cents, down roughly a third from the year-earlier level, excluding some costs.
That was better than the $128.05 million and 29 cents the Street had been expecting.
CEO Richard Reidy remarked that the company’s results were mostly held back in the division called Enterprise Business Solutions, or ESB, where companies were frozen with uncertainty about the direction of the economy.
“The challenging macroeconomic environment in August, particularly within financial services, led some customers to postpone their purchasing decisions,” he said. “With our focus on solution selling, delays in closing larger deals have a material impact on our quarterly results. Though we have greatly improved our sales capabilities over the last year, we are not consistently performing at desired levels.”
For the current quarter, fiscal Q4, the company sees revenue in a range of $130 million to $134 million, and EPS of 30 cents to 33 cents. That is below the average estimate of $145 million and 42 cents.
Update: Progress shares have resumed trading and are down $1.89, or 10%, at $17.50 in late trading.
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