28.03.2008
Red Hat Earnings Rise Above Expectation by 7 Percent
Red Hat, provider of free and open source software solutions, announced it’s fourth-quarter profit, which rose by 7 percent. CEO James Whitehurst said, “Red Hat is now ready to continue rapid growth through an economic downturn as the Raleigh-based company pitches its free software to organizations looking to cut their tech budgets”.
According to Red Hat, it earned USD22 million, or 10 cents per share, in its first quarter compared to USD20.5 million, also 10 cents per share, a year earlier.
Thomson Financial predicted the company earned 10 cents per share on revenue of USD141.1 million. Excluding one-time items, Red Hat said it earned USD 42.7 million, or 20 cents per share, while analysts expected earnings per share of 19 cents on the same basis.
As per the company, it repurchased some 3.7 million shares of stock for about USD66 million, reinvesting some of its operating cash flow. After adjusting for stock compensation and tax expenses, cash flow from operations totaled USD71.6 million in the quarter, about 50 percent of revenue.
