PC Connection earned $2.9 million, or 12 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with $1.4 million in net income, or 6 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Thomson Financial/First Call projected earnings of 7 cents per share.
Revenue for the quarter was $322.2 million, an 18 percent increase from the $273.6 million for the same period last year.
For fiscal year 2002, the Merrimack-based direct marketer posted $3.2 million in net income, or 13 cents per share, compared with $7.4 million, or 30 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue in 2002 was $1.191 billion, compared with $1.186 billion in 2001.
Excluding revenue from the company's April acquisition of MoreDirect, sales for the quarter were $252 million, compared with $273.6 million in the prior-year quarter. Excluding MoreDirect, earnings were 2 cents per share.
"Our fourth-quarter results were stronger than we expected given the current economic environment. Excluding the operations of MoreDirect, net sales for the month of December grew by 5 percent over a year ago," said Patricia Gallup, CEO of PC Connection. "Our positive finish in 2002 has encouraged us to be cautiously optimistic that, increasingly, there will be renewed demand in 2003 for the products and services PC Connection provides."
The company had 479 outbound sales account managers at the end of the fourth quarter, compared with 464 in the year-ago quarter and 511 at the end of the third quarter.
Average order size for the fourth quarter was $1,135, compared with $1,061 in the corresponding period a year ago and $1,323 in the third quarter.
Desktop PCs and servers accounted for 16 percent of sales in the fourth quarter of 2002, compared with 12 percent a year ago. Notebook PCs accounted for 14 percent of sales, compared with 20.5 percent last year. The average selling price of computer systems decreased 4 percent in the fourth quarter from the corresponding period a year ago and decreased 12 percent from the third quarter of 2002.
Shares of PC Connection were trading at $5.96 this morning.
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