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Unisys Shares Plunge 7% As Q2 Results Miss Estimates(dpa-AFX International Compact Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Unisys Corp. (UIS) plunged more than seven percent in extended trade on Tuesday after the information technology company reported results for the second quarter that missed analysts' expectations. The company also reported a loss for the quarter compared to a profit last year, reflecting lower margins and a revenue decline amid lower sales of ClearPath enterprise servers and software. "Our second-quarter 2014 results were impacted by lower sales of our flagship ClearPath family of enterprise software and servers, which can vary significantly from quarter to quarter based on the timing of client transactions," Chairman and CEO Ed Coleman said in a statement. The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based company reported a net loss of $12.1 million or $0.24 per share for the second quarter, compared to net income of $20.4 million, or $0.46 per share in the prior-year quarter. Excluding pension expense, adjusted net income for the quarter was $5.8 million or $0.11 per share, compared to $46.4 million or $0.91 per share in the year-ago quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.47 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items. Revenues for the quarter decreased 6 percent to $806.4 million from $858.6 million in the same quarter last year, and missed Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $851.65 million. The company noted that foreign currency translations had a one percentage-point positive impact on revenue. U.S. revenues decreased 10 percent from last year, and international revenue decreased 3 percent or 4 percent on a constant currency basis, as declines in Asia-Pacific offset growth in Europe and Latin America. Services revenue decreased 4 percent year-over-year to $712.9 million, as growth in outsourcing and core maintenance was more than offset by declines in systems integration and infrastructure services. Services backlog at June 30, 2014 was $4.7 billion, down 2 percent from December 31, 2013 levels. Technology revenue also declined 21 percent to $93.5 million from last year, driven primarily by lower sales of ClearPath enterprise servers and software. Operating margin for the quarter contracted 240 basis points to 2.0 percent from last year's 4.4 percent, as gross margin declined 290 basis points from last year. The company said it recently won a significant contract with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to deliver one of the largest secure, cloud-based, on-demand IT computing implementations by a U.S. state government. "However, we were pleased to see sequential improvement in results over the first quarter of 2014 and we look for a strong second half of 2014 in our technology business driven by sales of ClearPath as well as increased traction in our Stealth cybersecurity and Forward! server products," Coleman added. UIS closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $25.36, up $1.07 or 4.41% on a volume of 1.00 million shares. However, the stock plunged $1.85 or 7.29% in extended hours trading. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX |