The San Mateo, California-based CRM vendor said it expects total revenue for the period ending December 31, 2004 to be in the range $387 million to $390 million, against consensus analyst expectations from Thomson First Call of $347.2 million.
Although the expected revenue represents a 23% sequential increase, it is closer to the year-ago figure of $366.7 million. After the fourth quarter 2003 Siebel went into a decline that hit a low in the second quarter 2004. The third quarter saw a sequential improvement, and the fourth-quarter prelims have built on that.
Net income for the fourth quarter is expected to be in the range $42 million to $44 million, or $0.08 per share, compared to $19.4 million in the previous quarter and $41.5 million in the year-ago quarter, which indicates that the company is returning to year-ago performance levels plus a slight improvement. Analysts anticipated fourth-quarter profit of $38 million and earnings per share of $0.07.
Operating margin is also moving back in line with Siebel’s norm, rising from only 3.1% in the second quarter 2003, to 10.1% in the third quarter 2004, and 11.7% according to the fourth-quarter prelims.
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