Citrix NetScaler Helps Boost Q1 Earnings 55 Percent
For Q1, Citrix's profit jumped 55 percent to $73.5 million, or 38 cents a share, compared to 25 cents a share during last year's Q1. Non-GAAP earnings were 50 cents per share and revenue was $491 million, compared to the 42 cents per share and $475.2 million in revenue that Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been expecting.
Operating margin rose to 16.5 percent compared to from 12.6 percent in last year's Q1.
Like rival VMware, Citrix is pushing hard on cloud computing and the service delivery capacity it's bringing to channel partners. During the earnings call, Mark Templeton, Citrix president and CEO, touted the growth of Citrix's NetScaler platform, which the company describes as a networking appliance for the cloud.
NetScaler revenue grew 50 percent year-over-year and Citrix is seeing "good traction" with large Web properties and major service providers, Templeton said. "It's the perfect front door for enterprise data centers and for on demand cloud providers," he said. "You can use XenServer to run multiple NetScaler appliances, and each virtual instance includes enterprise ready private and public cloud capabilities."
Citrix XenDesktop also had a solid quarter, with revenue of $43 million, more than double what it was during last year's quarter, and new licenses represented about 80 percent of that, according to Templeton.
Templeton also touted Citrix's progress in the consumer space, including its partnership with Skype, which was unveiled in March. Skype is incorporating Citrix GoToMeeting into "stunning" new Web conferencing and audio features, he said.
"Personal cloud services like GoToMeeting are powerful examples" of Citrix's IT footprint, and so is the company's Receiver software for mobile devices, Templeton said.
Citrix Receiver is being embedded in HP's webOS TouchPad tablet and Pre3 smartphone, RIM's Playbook, Motorola's Atrix and Windows Phone devices, providing users with access to corporate and line of business apps, he said.
"Receiver plays an important role in our strategic message and how we demonstrate what's possible on XenDesktop and XenApp to newer customers," Templeton said. "It gives companies a way to light up consumer devices without compromising security."
Citrix also boosted its yearly and quarterly earnings forecast. For the year, Citrix now expects earnings of $2.38 to $2.41 a share on revenue of $2.14 billion to $2.17 billion, a bump up from the $2.29 to $2.33 a share on revenue of $2.1 billion it forecast in January.
For Q2, Citrix expects earnings of 54 cents to 55 cents a share on revenue of $515 million to $525 million, while Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are forecasting 54 cents and $517 million in revenue.
Citrix investors appeared pleased with both the Q1 results and the guidance -- they sent shares northward more than six percent in Wednesday after hours trading to $82.40.