PTC hits a billion

PTC released results on Tuesday that showed that it returned to the billion dollar level in fiscal 2010, returning to a growth trajectory that stalled in 2009.  For those keeping track, PTC last reported a billion dollars in revenue for two consecutive years in 1999. In prepared remarks, PTC made the following points: •Q4 revenue was $268 million, slightly ahead of the high end of guidance of $265 million — helped by currency fluctuations that boosted revenue by $4 million. •Q4 revenue was up 9% over Q4’09, driven by a sharp 26% increase in license revenue.  Services and maintenance revenue was up on a year/year basis for the first time since the second quarter of 2009, due to both the license growth in recent quarters and an uptick in services engagements. •PLM license revenue in FQ4 was $44 million, up 27% over a year ago, leading to overall PLM revenue of $124 million, up 15%.  PTC reports that its large enterprise PLM market continues to exhibit strength with growth in license, maintenance and services revenue. •CAD license revenue in FQ4 was $45 million, up 25%. PTC hopes that its new Project Lightning, to be unveiled on Thursday, will accelerate growth in this market. •The large enterprise CAD market saw year-over-year growth for the first time since 2008. Revenue for this quadrant was up 4% on license growth of 20%. •PTC closed 28 large deals (with over $1 million in license and services revenue) in FQ4’10, up from 19 in FQ4’09.  19 of these deals were in North America, 6 in Europe and 3 in Asia. Large deals accounted for 22% of revenue in FQ4’10 (up from 20% a year ago) even as the average deal size dropped to $2.1 million from $2.6 a year ago. In all, this led to fiscal 2010 revenue of $1.010 billion. PTC also established its first estimates for fiscal 2011, with Q1 revenue of $255 million to $265 million and a target for FY’11 of revenue of $1.110 billion to $1.130 billion.  Said PTC’s CEO Jim Heppelmann and CFO Jeff Glidden, “Based on the market momentum we are seeing, the strength of our pipeline, our increased sales capacity, many important product initiatives … we are targeting 10% to 12% revenue growth and 20% to 25% non-GAAP EPS growth [in F’11]. We are expecting license revenue growth of approximately 20% to 25%, services revenue growth of approximately 10% and maintenance revenue growth of approximately 5%… We are also establishing a target of having won 30 domino accounts by the end of FY’11, up from 19 currently.” The Q1 level of between $255 million and $265 million falls within PTC’s normal seasonal patterns. After hours trading shows investors are unimpressed — or unaware. PTC shares are up about 1%. More coming after the earnings call.  Stay tuned.