Autonomy 3Q results beat the street as pre-tax profits double; outlook ‘comfortable’
Autonomy Corporation plc, provider of sophisticated search software for enterprises, reported a 116% year-on-year jump in pretax profits to $53.7m in 3Q08 on revenue 42% higher at $127.1m.
The result was ahead of analysts' consensus forecasts and another record in the continuing success story of the largest company by market capitalisation in the Cambridge Cluster of high tech companies.
The market traded its shares up 3.6% after the results were released. It is now valued at around £1.83 billion.
CEO Mike Lynch said: "The strength in trading was such that the usual Q3 seasonal weakness was not evident, resulting in exceptional quarter-on-quarter revenue, profit and operating margin growth.
"The business delivered accelerating organic growth during the third quarter, with significant regulatory-driven demand across all sectors, whilst maintaining the backlog at record levels. Financial performance during the quarter was consistently strong with record cash collection from our blue chip customer base and cash conversion over 100%.
"Despite conservative analysis of the current macro environment, the fact that our fundamental market dynamics and our pipeline going into the remainder of the year remain strong leads us to be comfortable with the outlook", Dr Lynch said.
"Although still maintaining a cautious approach and monitoring the situation closely, we see a number of business opportunities moving into 2009 which give us confidence in the outlook."
Autonomy said its software had been adopted by enterprises to process information across all internal and external data formats and sources. During 3Q, major customer wins included: Cingular, Statoil, GM, Bayer, Groupe Mutuel, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, HBO, Canon, Merrill Lynch, PwC, KPMG, D&T, Norsk Hydro, Thomas Cook, Hartford Insurance, Vodafone, emap, AstraZeneca, Sirius Radio, Aflac, Amtrak, Standard & Poors, Wolters Kluwer, Linklaters and the US Postal Service.
Q3 business also included new and repeat licenses with multiple government, defence and intelligence agencies such as the US SEC, U.S. National Institute of Health, the U.S. Army, as well as in the UK, Slovakia, European Commission, Netherlands, Chile, Sweden and Mexico. Repeat business from existing customers accounted for about 44% of revenue for the quarter.
