Acxiom Corp. posted a loss of $1.57 million for its 2016 fourth quarter, the Little Rock company said Tuesday.
Acxiom's earnings were an improvement from the $6.04 million loss the company reported during its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter. Acxiom also saw its revenue for the quarter jump 9 percent.
"Our strong fourth quarter performance capped off a year of solid execution across each of our businesses," said Acxiom Chief Executive Officer Scott Howe in a prepared statement.
"We enter fiscal 2017 from a position of strength, propelled by our recent progress and momentum," he said.
Acxiom had a loss of 2 cents per share during the period ending March 31, compared with a loss of 8 cents per share during the same quarter a year ago. Analysts expected Acxiom to post a profit of 12 cents per share.
The company had revenue of $224.7 million during the fourth quarter, up from $205.7 million during the period in fiscal 2015.
"It was a good quarter," said said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Simmons First Investment Group Inc. in Little Rock.
"It would have been a better quarter if [Acxiom] could have done better on the expense control," he said, adding that the company saw an increase in marketing, and general and administrative costs during the quarter.
Acxiom shares declined 1.9 percent to close at $22.38 on the Nasdaq. The company released its financial results after markets closed.
Acxiom bought back 731,000 shares for about $15 million during the fourth quarter. The company has repurchased 15.5 million shares for $255 million since 2011.
Acxiom, as a data broker, collects consumer information from public records, shopping habits and clients to help its customers develop targeted marketing campaigns.
Acxiom said that during the fourth quarter the company added more than 15 customers to its connectivity division, and that it launched its data onboarding service in the United Kingdom and France.
The launch of the onboarding service overseas allows clients there to use LiveRamp to activate offline data across marketing platforms.
Onboarding is the process of converting information to a digital format so it can be used for marketing campaigns.
Acxiom purchased San Francisco-based LiveRamp in 2014. LiveRamp is a marketing services company that helps Acxiom collect offline data for marketing applications.
For the entire 2016 fiscal year, Acxiom had a profit of $6.7 million, compared with a loss of $11 million during the 2015 fiscal year.
For the year, Acxiom had revenue of $850 million, compared with $805 million in 2015.
Acxiom says it expects revenue to range between $870 million to $890 million during the fiscal 2017 year.
Business on 05/18/2016