Acxiom Reports In-Line Results - Analyst Blog

Acxiom Corporation (ACXM) reported revenues of $288.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012, up 6.9% year over year and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $277 million.

On a segment basis, Information services generated revenues of $225.6 million, up 7.1% year over year. Information products generated revenues of $63.3 million, up 6.0% year over year.

Gross margin came in at 20.6% from 22.2% in the year-ago quarter.  Operating margin came in at 7.7%, down from 8.2% in the year-ago quarter.

Net income jumped 11.9% year over year to $10.9 million. Earnings per share came in at 13 cents, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

During the quarter, Acxiom generated $32.7 million of cash from operations and used $12.6 million in capital expenditures.

Acxiom prepaid $25 million of its term loan due March 15, 2015 in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. Subsequent to the end of the first quarter, Acxiom prepaid an additional $75 million of the term loan.

Acxiom also announced that its Board of Directors has named marketing and advertising veteran Scott E. Howe as the company’s chief executive officer and president.

Howe is a former corporate Vice President of Microsoft Advertising Business Groups. Prior to Microsoft, he served in multiple executive positions within interactive company aQuantive, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2007.

Earlier, the company’s CEO and President John A. Meyer and CFO Christopher W. Wolf resigned from their posts.

We remain concerned about the several lawsuits initiated against the company, alleging Acxiom of having violated the Exchange Act. The stock holders allege that the financial statements issued by the company were false and misleading, which artificially inflated the price of Acxiom’s securities.

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