As we have seen in our earlier posts (available here and here), SaaS companies have been doing well in the face of a weak economy as SaaS deployments require less upfront investment.

A case in point is Concur Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: CNQR) (earlier coverage can be found here ) whose second-quarter net income tripled to $3.7 million, or $0.08 per share. Analysts estimated $0.11 per share on sales of $50.1 million. Concur, which is into corporate expense-management software, reported revenue of $53.7 million, an increase of 74% y-o-y and 9% q-o-q. Deferred revenues were $4.33 million, up from $1.35 million last year. It bought back 1.1 million shares of its common stock in the quarter.

For Q3, Concur expects total revenue to be $53.0 million and $211.0 million for fiscal 2008. It expects EPS for Q3 to be $0.07 and for fiscal 2008 to be $0.29. Analysts expect profit of $0.12 per share on sales of $51.8 million for Q3. For the 2008 fiscal year, the company expects profit of $0.79 per share on sales of $211 million, excluding one-time costs and benefits. Analysts are predicting profit of $0.47 per share on sales of $206.1 million.

Its stock is trading around $38, with a market cap around $1.7 billion.

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Last week RightNow Technologies Inc. (RNOW) (earlier coverage can be found here) also reported lesser first quarter net loss of $3.4 million, or $0.10 a share, compared to net loss of $6 million or $0.18 a share last year. Analyst estimates were per-share loss of $0.10 on revenue of $32 million. Revenue also beat estimates growing 28% to $32.9 million. Net deferred revenue was $30 million, up from $27.8 million last quarter.

Its international business accounted for 30% of the revenue. RNOW added 64 customers in the quarter, up from 60 additions in the last quarter. However, its total number of customers has been 1800 since Q3 2006, indicating same level of churn as addition.

In an earlier post, we talked about RNOW’s business model transition from one-time (perpetual) to recurring subscription fees. In the first quarter, perpetual licenses amounted to $0.144 million or almost 0% of the revenue, down from 2% in the last quarter. This would signal the completion of its shift to the recurring subscription-based revenue model.

Based on its strong Q1 performance, RightNow has raised its full year guidance to $136 to $141 million, with recurring revenue growth of about 25%. Net loss per share for 2008 is expected to be between $0.32 and $0.25. Non GAAP net loss per share is expected to be between $0.12 and $0.05, which is above the analyst consensus of $0.13. For Q2, its estimates were in-line with analyst consensus. Revenue is expected in the range of $34 to $35 million, and net loss per share in the range of $0.12 to $0.10. Its shares soared with its strong quarter and upbeat guidance. Its stock is trading around $13 with market cap around $430 million. It hit a 52-week low of $9.7 on January 31.

A recent report from Gartner expects worldwide CRM software revenue will grow 14.2% to $8.9 billion in 2008 and we can expect RightNow also to flourish. There could also be some consolidation in the CRM space.

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On April 30, Omniture (OMTR) (earlier coverage can be found here and here) also reported its earnings. It disclosed a 117% y-o-y and 47% q-o-q growth to achieve revenue of $63.2 million. However, GAAP net loss increased to $12.9 million or $0.19 per diluted share from $2.4 million or $0.05 per diluted share last year mainly due to acquisition, amortization and stock-based compensation charges. Excluding these charges, non-GAAP net income was $7.3 million or $0.10 per diluted share.

Omniture completed the acquisition of web optimization company Offermatica (for $65 million) and real-time analytics applications provider Visual Sciences (for $394 million) in December and January, respectively and reported contribution of $21 million in non-GAAP revenue from them.

Deferred revenues were $13.2 million compared to $4.39 last year. It added 250 new customers taking its total customer count to 4500, up from 4350 last quarter and its retention rate is 95%. Revenue from outside the U.S. grew 27% compared to 23% last year. It strengthened its business in China with a partnership with the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, Baidu.com (BIDU).

For Q2, Omniture expects revenue in the range of $70 to $72 million, and GAAP net loss between $0.13 and $0.14 per share. For 2008, it expects revenue between $295 and $300 million and GAAP net loss between $0.44 and $0.49 per share. On a non-GAAP basis, it expects net income of $0.10 to $0.11 per diluted share in Q2 and $0.41 to $0.46 per diluted share in 2008. Its stock is trading around $23 with a market cap of around $1.65 billion.

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Citrix (CTXS) reported its first quarter results last week. Earlier coverage is available here and here. Revenue was $377 million, up 22% while net income dipped 10.5% due to higher costs to $34 million or $0.18 per diluted share. Operating expenses grew 27% to $306.3 million, and deferred revenue also grew 22% to $459 million. It repurchased shares for about $148 million.

Citrix online had revenue of $62 million, up 31%. Product license revenue grew 20% to $147 million. Application networking grew 17% to $38 million, and application virtualization group grew 19% to 268 million led by the success of XenApp Platinum. With the $500 million XenSource acquisition in October, Citrix is trying to rebrand itself as an end-to-end virtualization vendor with application, server, and desktop virtualization solutions.

International revenue grew 30% with revenue in the EMEA region growing 31%, the Pacific region 28%, and the Americas just 13%.

For fiscal 2008, Citrix expects net revenue in the range of $1.600 to $1.645 billion and GAAP diluted EPS in the range of $0.78 to $0.89. For Q2, it expects net revenue in the range of $380 million to $390 million, GAAP diluted EPS in the range of $0.16 to $0.20, and non-GAAP EPS of $0.35-$0.38. Analyst estimates were more upbeat at $392.8 million revenue, and EPS of $0.38. Its stock is trading around $34 with a market cap of around $6.4 billion. It hit a 52-week low of $29.15 on April 1.

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Sramana Mitra

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