EMC: Customers have 'more comfort' about IT budgets
EMC CEO Joe Tucci said that customers are "signaling more comfort spending their IT budgets." The company reported better-than-expected third quarter results.
The storage giant reported third quarter earnings of $298.2 million, or 14 cents a share, on revenue of $3.52 billion, down 5 percent from a year ago. Under a non-GAAP basis, EMC reported earnings of $480.3 million, or 23 cents a share, two cents better than Wall Street estimates.
Generally speaking, EMC has been well positioned in the downturn due to a focus on storage, cloud computing, virtualization and data centers -- hot areas in enterprise IT. Tucci added in a statement that the company has expanded its product line while cutting costs.
Also see: VMware posts solid third quarter, tops estimates
As for the outlook, Tucci added that the company was well positioned to hit its 2009 targets. EMC expects fourth quarter revenue of $4 billion and 2009 revenue of $13.9 billion. Net income is expected to be 21 cents a share in the fourth quarter and 55 cents a share for the year.
Non-GAAP earnings are expected to be 30 cents a share in the fourth quarter. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 28 cents a share. For the year, EMC projected non-GAAP earnings, which exclude acquisition charges, of 87 cents a share, four cents better than Wall Street estimates.
Here's a look at the trends for EMC's key product lines, including VMware:
