A huge day in engineering IT earnings, as PTC and FARO explain their miss to investors while AspenTech and Trimble issue earnings reports. A very quick headline on each and then I dash to the airport — more to come.
PTC reported last night that revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter was $325 million, down from $339 million a year ago. Wall Street had been expecting revenue of about $330 million, so look for a lot of disappointed investors and an acrimonious earnings call. License revenue was $101 million, down 6% in constant currencies and down 9% as reported. CEO Jim Heppelmann said that demand was strong in the Americas and Pacific Rim, but could not offset caution in Japan and Europe.
For the first quarter of fiscal 2013, PTC expects GAAP revenue of $313 million to $323 million; for fiscal 2013 in total, it expects revenue of around $1.37 billion.
FARO, the maker of laser scanners and metrology devices, reports that revenue for its third quarter was $61 million, down 6% from a year ago even as new order bookings rose slightly. CEO Jay Freeland also pointed to Europe and “economic weakness and uncertainty” as delaying customer purchases.
AspenTech, on the other hand,announced solid results for its fiscal first quarter 2013, with subscription & software revenue of $54 million, up from $32 million a year ago and services & other revenue of $17 million, down from $19 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. Total revenue for FQ1 was $72 million, up 40% from the prior year. [Keep in mind that AspenTech is transitioning from a perpetual license to a subscription-based business model, so this staggering 60%+ increase in software revenue isn’t as clear-cut as it looks.]
Trimble reports later today and all of these companies will hold earnings calls at some point. If there is interesting additional detail, I’ll update over the weekend.
