Improved IT Demand Boosts Synnex's Q4 Sales
Improved IT spending and stable PC demand helped power Synnex to higher fourth-quarter sales.
For its fiscal further quarter ended Nov. 30, 2013, the IT distributor posted $3.06 billion in revenue, a 10.6 percent increase from the same period a year ago. Synnex attributed the higher revenue to improved global economic conditions as well as solid PC demand in North America.
Synnex's fourth-quarter earnings, meanwhile, fell to $41.5 million or $1.10 per share from $43.6 million or $1.16 a share. The drop was largely attributed to expenses and integration costs from Synnex's $505 million acquisition of IBM's customer care services business in September.
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For the fiscal year, Synnex reported $10.8 billion in revenue, a 5.4 percent increase from its fiscal 2012 period, with net income of $152.2 million, which is just 0.6 percent increase.
In an interview with CRN following the Thursday earnings call, Synnex President and CEO Kevin Murai highlighted PC sales in the quarter as well as growth in key enterprise areas.
"Networking and security have grown faster than the overall distribution business, and that trend continued in this last quarter," Murai said.
In addition, Synnex saw strong demand in the U.S. around state and local governments and education (SLED). Murai said that while the federal government market remained soft, the SLED market benefited from pent up demand for IT as well as new investments in education.
As for the outlook for 2014, Murai said he expects continued IT spending improvement in North America and stability in the PC market.
"We think PC sales will continue to be stable," Murai said. "I do think there are a couple of factors that could have a positive effect on PCs, and that includes the end of Windows XP support [in April] and demand for touch-enabled devices."
Synnex said it expects revenue in its first-quarter fiscal 2014 to be in the range of $2.675 billion to $2.775 billion with earnings per share between $0.91 and $0.95. The first quarter outlook does not include costs related to the IBM customer services care business division.
PUBLISHED JAN. 10, 2013