Red Hat Inc. said Thursday its results for the November quarter improved thanks to cloud computing and big data trends that have increased demand for its open-source technology.
Red Hat shares rose 10% to $67.75 in recent after-hours trading.
The company also said Chief Financial Officer Charles E. Peters, Jr. , plans to retire in the next 12 months, assuming a transition to a suitable successor has been completed by then. Mr. Peters has been CFO for more than 10 years.
The open-source software provider, which has reported robust revenue increases lately, is known for its enterprise Linux OpenStack platform, but has also posted solid growth for its so-called middleware offerings and has expanded its storage technology business.
For the quarter ended Nov. 30, Red Hat reported a profit of $47.9 million, or 26 cents a share, down from $52 million, or 27 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 15% to $455.9 million. Excluding stock-based compensation in both periods, one-time items related to convertible notes and hedges, and other items, the profit was 42 cents a share in both periods.
Red Hat had projected earnings, excluding items, of about 40 cents a share on revenue of about $449 million to $452 million.
At the end of the quarter, the company’s total deferred revenue balance was $1.3 billion, up 16% from a year earlier.
During the quarter, Red Hat bought privately held mobile application platform company FeedHenry.
Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/red-hats-profit-improves-on-cloud-computing-trends-1418939390