Veritas Software Tops Expectations

Updated from 4:14 p.m. ET

Veritas Software (VRTS) said it earned 16 cents a share in the third quarter excluding certain items, topping analysts' estimates.

Analysts had expected the company would earn 14 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial. It earned 9 cents a share in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue in the quarter climbed 73% to $317.2 million from $183.4 million a year earlier.

The company's stock was hammered Thursday ahead of the announcement as the market was hit hard by concerns about turmoil in the Middle East and rising oil prices. The stock finished regular trading off $16.31, or 12%, at $121.75.

The software company's third-quarter income, excluding purchase-accounting adjustments, was $70.3 million compared with $38.9 million a year earlier. On a net basis, the company reported a loss of $148.1 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with a loss of $183.6 million, or 48 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

The third quarter's net loss includes $235.3 million of purchase accounting amortization. (When a company uses purchase accounting in an acquisition, it must write off goodwill, the difference between what it pays and a company's book value, or the value of its assets. The write-off creates a charge against earnings.) In the year-earlier period, the net loss included $234.9 million of purchase accounting amortization and a one-time charge of $1.1 million for the write-off of in-process research and development.

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