Citrix Beats Street By A Penny

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company beat Wall Street estimates by one penny, reporting pro forma earnings of $32.8 million, or 19 cents per share, compared to $32.2 million, or 19 cents per share, on revenue of $143.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. The Wall Street consensus was 18 cents per share.

On a GAAP basis, net income for the quarter was down significantly, to $9.3 million, or 5 cents per diluted share. The quarter included $18.7 million in charges due to costs related to the acquisition of ExpertCity and a write-off of $7.2 million for deferred debt.

Citrix CEO Mark Templeton was upbeat about the company's first quarter, singling out the company's largest deal to date, a 38,725-seat win with German IT services giant IZB Soft, five customer deals worth $500,000 each and two $1 million-plus deals.

"IT spending is feeling better in spite of a business climate that is still choppy," Templeton said.

He also touted the successful transformation of ExpertCity into Citrix Online and the launch of a new "agency" channel program that rewards partners for influencing sales.

Templeton said that as part of the company's new solution adviser rewards program, partners submitted more than 2,500 projects during the quarter, with 80 projects validated and 500 now under review. Of the 80 projects validated, Citrix processed $40 million and paid advisers rewards on the $10 million closed during the quarter, Templeton said.

"It's the best business to be in for partners," said Templeton. "We're pleased with the first eight weeks of the program."

The Citrix CEO pointed to upgrades and new products to be launched this quarter, including an enhanced, integrated version of the MetaFrame Access Suite with a unified management platform and a customer preview of a planned GoToMeeting realtime meeting service for SMB customers and enterprise customers that would complement Citrix Online's existing GoToMyPC and GoToAssist Web-based desktop access products.

Templeton also hinted that Citrix has added SSL capabilities to its Secure Access Manager product and will go to market with an SSL VPN product in the near future.

"It's very important for us because you can't have complete access without that. We [added] SSL capabilities to SAM, and stay tuned. We have more good things coming," he said.

While noting that the overall climate is improving, Templeton offered conservative predictions for the company's second fiscal quarter, including earnings per share of between 14 cents to 15 cents or adjusted earnings of between 16 cents and 8 cents per share on revenue of $170 million to $180 million.