CA Profit Rises 15%; Outlook Mostly Above Expectations

   By Tess Stynes 
 

CA Inc. issued guidance for its recently started fiscal year that mostly topped expectations, and the business-software company reported its earnings rose 15% in the latest quarter.

The New York company's shares rose 4.1% to $31.20 in recent after-hours trading as per-share earnings, excluding certain one-time items, and revenue beat analysts' estimates.

For the new fiscal year ending in March of 2017, CA forecast adjusted per-share earnings from continuing operations of $2.51 to $2.56 and revenue of $4.04 billion to $4.08 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of $2.49 and revenue of $4.05 billion.

The information-technology company has been transitioning from its roots creating software for mainframe computers into higher growth products that help large enterprises create Web services and mobile apps and tools to integrate them into their IT networks.

CA, also known as CA Technologies, has expanded its capabilities with a string of acquisitions last year, including its roughly $480 million deal for Rally Software Development Corp., its acquisition of automated software testing company Grid Tools Ltd. and its purchase of network security firm Xceedium Inc.

Still, CA's mainframe segment remains the biggest to its topline. In the lastest quarter, mainframe revenue fell 4.4% to $547 million. Enterprise solutions segment revenue increased 3.3% to $380 million.

For the period ended March 31, CA reported a profit of $174 million, or 42 cents a share, up from $151 million, or 34 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding share-based compensation and other items, per-share earnings rose to 60 cents from 56 cents. Revenue decreased 1.4% to $1.01 billion--though excluding currency effects, it rose 1%.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of 57 cents and revenue of $990 million.

Total bookings declined to $960 million from $1.07 billion a year earlier, mostly as the result of lower renewals.

Write to Tess Stynes at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 11, 2016 16:49 ET (20:49 GMT)

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