Brocade Ekes Past Profit Expectations

Data-storage gearmaker Brocade Communications (BRCD Quote) said its fiscal second-quarter profit and revenue rose from a year ago and topped Wall Street's expectations.

Brocade on Thursday reported net income of $184.8 million, or 47 cents a share, for the latest quarter. A year ago, it earned $843,000 and broke even on a per-share basis. Subtracting stock-based compensation expenses and one-time items, Brocade earned 15 cents a share this year, up from 11 cents last year and topping the Thomson Reuters average forecast by a penny.

Revenue rose 2.8% from the year-ago period to $354.9 million, well above expectations that Brocade would see revenue of $346.5 million.

Brocade rose 3.2% during Wednesday's session and was up another 4.1% in late trading to $8.35. The company's stock is up nearly 14% for the year.

"It was another very good quarter for Brocade as we continued our excellent operational execution and performance," said CEO Michael Klayko in a statement. "Our financial results were better than the company expected."

Cash flow from operations more than doubled to $111 million, while both gross margin and operating margin increased substantially from a year ago. Additionally, Brocade said the average selling price of its products in the fiscal second quarter declined "in the low single digits" compared to same quarter a year ago.

Among other networkers and telecom stocks, Ericsson (ERIC Quote) fell 0.9%, Cisco (CSCO Quote) ended down 0.5%, and Nortel (NT Quote) was off 0.3%.

Meanwhile, Motorola (MOT Quote) added 1.3%, and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU Quote) rose 1.4%.