LITTLE ROCK — Acxiom Corp. almost doubled its net income in its fiscal-2013 third quarter compared with the same quarter a year ago, the company said Wednesday.
Little Rock-based Acxiom reported a profit of $14.5 million for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2012 - an 83.5 percent increase from last year’s $7.9 million net income. Revenue fell about 3 percent from $280.9 million to $273.1 million.
Acxiom’s earnings per share attributable to shareholders also rose from 10 cents the previous year to 19 cents, beating analysts’ prediction of 16 cents per share for the quarter.
This is the second consecutive quarter that Acxiom has surpassed analysts’ estimates. In its second quarter of its fiscal 2013, Acxiom beat analysts’ predictions of 15 cents by posting 21 cents per share.
Shares of Acxiom fell 29 cents, or 1.5 percent, to finish at $18.69 on the Nasdaq stock exchange in lighter-than-average trading volume. Before the close, share prices ranged from $18.56 to $18.92. The company released its earnings report after the market closed.
Acxiom bought back 1.04 million shares for $18.3 million during its third quarter. The buyback is part of a repurchasing program the company started in August 2011. Since then, Acxiom has bought back 9.9 million shares - 12 percent of outstanding common stock - for $131 million.
Acxiom is a data-mining company that uses information to help its customers, such as retailers, target specific consumers in advertisement campaigns.
The company said its thirdquarter revenue for its marketing and data business, which accounts for the greater part of its revenue, was $190 million, compared with $187 million for the same period a year ago.
Acxiom said a 4 percent increase in revenue from its U.S. marketing and data services was partially offset by declines in international earnings.
“Revenue from our top 100 U.S. marketing and data services customers was up over 67 percent this quarter and up over 9 percent year to date,” Scott Howe, Acxiom’s chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. “While we are pleased with this performance, we also recognize wehave work to do in order to further expand our client base and reignite growth with our small and mid-tier customers.”
During Acxiom’s second quarter, the company’s net earnings rose by 34.3 percent, from $12.3 million in the previous year to $16.5 million, for the period that ended Sept. 30. In the same quarter, Acxiom’s revenue fell 3 percent to $277 million.
The company said it expects revenue for the fiscal year to be down about 2.5 percent from the $1.13 billion of the previous year. The decline is attributed to a decrease in information technology infrastructure management and international operations.
Business, Pages 27 on 01/31/2013