Cognos: Strong Earnings, Weak Guidance

Canadian business-intelligence and performance-management software maker Cognos reported better-than-expected FQ2 earnings and revenue Thursday, but gave slightly disappointing Q3 guidance. GAAP net income was up 12% to $26.5 million ($0.31), compared with $23.8 million ($0.26) last year; excluding items earnings jumped 15% to $34.7 million ($0.40) vs. $30.0 million ($0.33) a year ago. Revenue rose 10% to $252 million. Analysts were looking for EPS of $0.38 after items on sales of $251 million. Cognos also announced it will buy back up to $200M in shares over the next year. For the coming quarter, the company expects revenue of $270-285 million and EPS of $0.45-0.53; Street forecasts had been for $0.52 on revenue of $271 million. CEO Rob Ashe said that aside from "isolated incidences," Cognos has not seen any signs of weakening demand from financial services customers (see full earnings call transcript). Ashe also said the company anticipates a significant hit to Q3 earnings due to the strengthening of the Canadian dollar. Shares dropped 4.8% to $42.45 in extended trading.

Sources: Press release, MarketWatch, Barron's
Commentary: Cognos' Missing Enterprise 3.0 Strategy • Cognos’ Company Cleanup
Stocks/ETFs to watch: COGN. Competitors: BOBJ, SAP, ORCL, MSFT

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