Avaya Posts Solid Quarter

The company continues to buy back stock.

Author:: Scott Moritz
Publish date:: Jan 23, 2006 4:41 PM EST

Avaya

beat bottom-line goals with a solid fiscal first quarter performance.

The Basking Ridge, N.J., office communications gearmaker posted net income of $84 million, or 18 cents a share, for the quarter ended last month. Adjusting for one-time items, the company earned 15 cents a share on sales of $1.25 billion.

Those numbers compare with an adjusted profit of $33 million, or 7 cents a share, on $1.15 billion in sales in the year-ago period.

Analysts were looking for net income of 12 cents a share on sales of $1.26 billion.

"During the quarter, Avaya shipped its eight millionth IP line, with shipments increasing 16 percent compared to the year ago quarter," said CEO Don Peterson in a press release.

The company repurchased 7.9 million shares in the last quarter for an average price of $11.32. Avaya says it has repurchased a total of 19.5 million shares for about $197 million, reducing its shares outstanding by about 3%.

Avaya shares rose 6 cents to $11.56 in after-hours trading Monday.