Profit Jumps at D&B

D&B's (DNB Quote) second-quarter profit jumped 16% despite tepid sales.

Excluding certain expenses, the company's results topped analysts estimates. Additionally, D&B, formerly known as Dun & Bradstreet, raised its full-year earnings target, thanks in part to a lower-than-expected tax rate.

In the just-completed period, the business information provider earned $52.2 million, or 79 cents a share. In contrast, the company earned $47.1 million, or 67 cents a share in the same period last year.

Revenue rose 4% year-over-year to $367.4 million.

Weighing on the company's revenue was a decline in results from D&B's international operations. In dollar terms, the company's international sales fell 2% from the second quarter last year, due to the dollar's recent appreciation. In local currency terms, the company's foreign sales rose 1%.

Setting aside $2.2 million in restructuring charges and $800,000 related to a long-running legal matter, the company would have earned $55.2 million, or 84 cents a share.

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were expecting the company to earn 81 cents a share in the quarter on $376.3 million in sales.

The company did not provide guidance for the third quarter. But for the full year, D&B now expects to earn $3.86 to $3.96 a share excluding certain "non-core" gains and expenses. The company's previous forecast called for full-year earnings of $3.83 to $3.93 a share on that basis.

At least some of the upside appears to come from a change in the company's expected tax rate. D&B now expects to have a full-year tax rate of between 37% and 38%, excluding the effects of the "non-core" items. Previously, the company expected a full year tax rate of 38%.

In the first half of this year, the company has recorded a tax rate of 37.1%.