Blackboard Shares Hit 14-month High On Strong 3Q

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Blackboard Inc. jumped to a 14-month high Wednesday, a day after the educational software developer said its third-quarter profit rose nearly quintupled.

The company said a growing sales pipeline and new products helped propel cash flow, and it raised its guidance for the year. Its shares rose sharply in afternoon trading Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Washington-based Blackboard reported quarterly income of $4.3 million, or 13 cents per share, compared with earnings of $885,000, or 3 cents per share, in the same period last year. Excluding special items including stock-based compensation and non-cash interest expense, income was 40 cents per share in the latest quarter.

Sales rose 18 percent to $98.4 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 37 cents per share on revenue of $96.6 million.

Blackboard said it won new clients and expanded existing contracts, and it was seeing good adoption of newer products such as Blackboard Mobile, which delivers campus services and content to mobile devices.