NICE meets consensus, guides for growth

NICE Systems reported record revenue and profit for the fourth quarter and full year of 2011, and predicts further growth in 2012.

NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) reported revenue and profit growth to achieve record results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2011, and predicts further growth in 2012. The company beat the analysts' earnings per share consensus, but missed the revenue consensus.

Full-year revenue rose 14.7% to $797.7 million from $695.3 million in 2010. GAAP-based net profit rose to $57.3 million ($0.89 per share) in 2011 from $48.7 million in 2010, and non-GAAP net profit rose to $134.6 million ($2.10 per share) from $112.1 million. The company beat the analysts' earnings per share consensus of $2.07, but missed the revenue consensus of $798.7 million.

Fourth quarter revenue rose 14.3% to $213.6 million from $186.9 million for the corresponding quarter of 2010. GAAP-based net profit fell to $15.2 million ($0.24 per share) for the fourth quarter from $17.4 million for the corresponding quarter, but non-GAAP net profit rose to $37.6 million ($0.60 per share) from $32.7 million. The company beat the analysts' earnings per share consensus of $0.57, but missed the revenue consensus of $214.7 million.

In its guidance, NICE forecasts non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.50-0.55 on $210-218 million revenue for the first quarter of 2012, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.28-2.48on $930-950 million revenue for the year as a whole.

Cash flow from operations was $53.3 million in the fourth quarter, and the company had $562.6 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2011, with no debt.

NICE president and CEO Zeevi Bregman said, "We ended the fourth quarter with very strong bookings, a record backlog, and a healthy pipeline, and we look forward to another year of profitable growth in 2012." He attributed the growth in 2011 to strong demand for the company's best-in-class analytics-based solutions to help them derive better insight into their businesses in real-time.

NICE's share price rose 2.1% by early afternoon on the TASE today to NIS 139.20, after rising 1.1% on Nasdaq yesterday to $36.72, giving a market cap of $2.35 billion.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 15, 2012

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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