EMC Profit Takes a Slide but Revenue Still Positive Due to Storage Systems Gains
EMC Corp.’s first-quarter profit dipped 14 percent on acquisition-related charges, but the data storage vendor managed to post a double-digit revenue gain amid a slow U.S. economy, beating Wall Street expectations.
Its shares rose more than 2 percent on morning trading.
Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC said Wednesday that net income fell to $268.8 million, or 13 cents per share in the three months ended March 31. That’s down from $312.6 million, or 15 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
The latest quarter’s performance was hurt by a $79 million non-cash charge to write off research and development operations from recent acquisitions. Without that charge and other one-time items including employee stock options costs, EMC’s profit was $477.3 million, or 23 cents per share.
Revenue rose 17 percent to $3.47 billion, beating the $3.45 billion consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Despite a lagging U.S. economy that threatens to slow technology spending, EMC posted 14 percent revenue growth in North America, which accounted for 57 percent of total company revenue. Overseas, where EMC has consistently posted stronger growth, the revenue gain was 21 percent.
