Sybase Beats Profit Estimates

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sybase(SY Quote) beat Wall Street's third-quarter earnings estimates, and delivered a fourth-quarter outlook in line with expectations.

Shares of Sybase were up 79 cents, or 3%, to $27.39 in recent trading.

The Dublin, Calif., business software company said net income for the third quarter grew 1.8% to $34.7 million, or 40 cents a share, from $34.1 million, or 37 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding special items, EPS was 55 cents. Analysts were expecting EPS of 50 cents.

Revenue rose 11% to $284 million, from $255.3 million for the same quarter of last year. Analysts were expecting $275.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

Deferred revenue rose 1.6% to $202.4 million.

License revenue rose 9% to $92.9 million, while messaging revenue rose 30% to $44.7 million.

Excluding special charges, operating margin was 24%, compared to 22% for the same period of last year.

For the fourth quarter, the company projected revenue of $295 million to $305 million and EPS, excluding charges, of 60 cents to 62 cents. Analysts were looking revenue of $301.4 million and earnings before items of 61 cents a share.

The company's business software competes with offerings from IBM(IBM Quote), Microsoft(MSFT Quote) and Oracle(ORCL Quote).