Lawson Swings to a Loss

Lawson Software (LWSN Quote) late Monday reported doubled sales from a year ago, beat Street third-quarter income expectations and guided in line for the coming quarter.

However, the business software maker reported a third-quarter loss of $9.77 million, or 5 cents a share, from a profit of $10 million, or 9 cents a share, a year ago, attributable to restructuring costs from its April 2006 acquisition of Intentia that included a charge of $11.5 million and higher marketing costs, Lawson said.

Shares of the company recently fell 39 cents, or 4.4%, to $8.51 after hours.

For the quarter ended Feb. 28, revenue rose roughly 118% to $191.2 million from a year ago, beating analysts' expectations of $188 million.

Before items, the St. Paul, Minn.-based company earned $11.4 million, or 6 cents a share, 3 cents greater than Thomson First Call consensus.

For the current, or fourth quarter, Lawson said it expects sales between $188 million and $196 million and EPS between a loss of 2 cents and a profit of 3 cents.

Excluding charges, Lawson sees an EPS profit of 3 cents to 5 cents. On that basis, analysts were looking for EPS of 4 cents on revenue of $193.4 million.