Nuance tops Q1 profit estimates
Nuance led the earnings parade on Thursday, releasing its fiscal first quarter earnings and revenue results after the bell. The voice recognition software giant posted non-GAAP earnings of 33 cents per share on revenue of $493.7 million.
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Wall Street was expecting earnings of 28 cents per share on revenue of $504.74 million. Nuance's shares were up just over one percent in late trading.
Nuance said the quarter's revenue was driven by its Dragon Medical cloud business, Enterprise hosting and Automotive connected offerings, but was "offset in part by continued declines in HIM and the wind down of our Other segment." Broken down, Nuance said healthcare revenue was up 38 percent to $92.9 million, while enterprise revenue was up 32 percent to $41 million. Automotive revenue for the quarter came to $25.5 million.
"We are pleased with how we performed in the quarter, including overperformance in revenue and profits," said Nuance CEO Mark Benjamin. "We delivered strong results across each of our segments, made progress in our strategic initiatives and continued our disciplined approach to capital allocation. As we move through this fiscal year, we remain focused on executing on our strategy to transition our conversational AI business to cloud-based, intelligence-driven solutions and on allocating resources to ensure maximum success in our high-growth markets."
Nuance also noted that it completed the $400 million sale of its Imaging business on Feb. 1 and remains on track to complete the spin-off of its Automotive business later this fiscal year. In terms of guidance, the company expects Q2 earnings between 24 cents and 27 cents, with revenue in the range of $437 million to $451 million. For the year, the company boosted its full-year EPS expectations on the strength of its higher-margin healthcare business.
Among other tech earnings on Thursday:
- MobileIron said it delivered fourth quarter revenue of $54.1 million, up 10 percent from a year ago. The company lost 7 cents a share while non-GAAP EPS came to 3 cents. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 3 cents a share on revenue of $54.6 million. As for the outlook, MobileIron projected first quarter revenue between $46 million and $49 million. For 2019, MobileIron sees $205 million to $215 million in revenue.
- NCR, which makes ATM and point-of-sale equipment, reported fourth quarter earnings of 39 cents a share on revenue of $1.8 billion, up 1 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings for the quarter were 84 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting fourth quarter non-GAAP earnings of 82 cents a share on revenue of $1.78 billion.
- VeriSign reported fourth quarter earnings of $182 million, or $1.50 a share, on revenue of $307 million, up 4 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP fourth quarter earnings were $1.58 a share. Wall Street was expecting fourth quarter earnings of $1.21 a share on revenue of $308.64 million.