Red Hat delivers solid third quarter results

Red Hat on Tuesday delivered strong third quarter results as it continued to ride along with the server and data center upgrade cycle.

The company reported fiscal third quarter earnings of $26 million, or 13 cents a share, on revenue of $235.6 million, up 21 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 20 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for earnings of 20 cents a share on revenue of $227.3 million.

Analysts were expecting a run-of-the-mill quarter and that's pretty much what they got relative to expectations.

Among the key figures:

• Subscription revenue for the quarter was $198.8 million, up from $164.4 million a year ago.
• Training and services revenue was $36.7 million, up from $29.9 million a year ago.
• Research and development spending was $43 million, up from $71 million a year ago.
• Red Hat ended the quarter with $594.9 million in cash.