WASHINGTON (AP) -- Online exchange company Liquidity Services Inc. said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell from last year, but its shares jumped as it set its 2012 earnings forecast toward the high end of Wall Street expectations.
Liquidity Services said Tuesday its net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $3.1 million, or 10 cents per share, compared to $2.5 million, or 9 cents per share, during the same period last year.
Revenue for the quarter was $80.7 million, up 11 percent from $72.9 during the prior year period.
The company also reported adjusted net income, excluding one-time costs like stock compensation and acquisition costs, of $4.1 million, or 14 cents per share, compared to $3.4 million, or 13 cents per share, during the same period last year.
The income results fell short of expectations for adjusted net income of 19 cents per share, according to a survey by FactSet. But revenue was higher than the $79.2 million than analysts expected.
Liquidity Services operates online auction markets where companies and government agencies can sell surplus and salvage consumer goods. Its marketplaces include the Web sites liquidation.com and govliquidation.com.
Liquidity Services said it expects to earn adjusted net income between 23 cents per share and 27 cents per share during the current first quarter of its 2012 fiscal year. Analysts were expecting adjusted net income of 24 cents per share for the quarter.
For the 2012 fiscal year, the company expects adjusted net income to be between $1.26 and $1.32 per share. Analysts were expecting adjusted net income of $1.27 for the full year.
Shares of the company rose $2.16, or 6.2 percent, to close at $36.97.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan said the company's earnings results were encouraging. There was "some confusion" about one-time costs that Liquidity Services factored into its final earnings, including a cost of 6 cents a share for a one-time tax adjustment, Rohan said in an email.
Without such costs, the company would have beat expectations, Rohan said.
Also encouraging was the higher value of merchandise that Liquidity Services sold through its markets, said Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Jason Helfstein. The company's gross merchandise value for the quarter was up 20 percent from last year, about 4 percent higher than Helfstein expected.
For the full year, Liquidity Services reported net income of $8.5 million, or 29 cents per share, compared to $12 million, or 44 cents per share during the same period last year. Revenue for the year was $337.4 million, up 18 percent from $286.8 million the year before.
Adjusted net income for the year was $1.05 per share, compared to an adjusted 59 cents per share the year before.
The full-year results widely beat analyst expectations for adjusted net income of 89 cents per share.
There are no comments yet