Veritas has record run in Q2

Software maker Veritas reported record revenue in its second quarter and only expects things to improve in the coming three months.

Veritas posted revenue of $413 million in the quarter ended June 30. This is the highest total in company history and a 13 percent rise over the $365 million generated in the same quarter a year ago. Net income came in at $49 million versus $26 million in last year's Q2.

"We exited the quarter with $2.4 billion in cash and short-term investments and, by leveraging the revenue upside, we delivered earnings well ahead of expectations and generated approximately $122 million in cash from operating activities," said Ed Gillis, CFO at Veritas, in a statement. "In addition, we are pleased to announce our board has authorized the use of up to $300 million to be used for a stock repurchase program. This repurchase program is intended to reduce the dilution resulting from both our recent acquisition of Precise Software and our employee stock option programs."

Veritas faired better than its hardware partners in the enterprise market who all came in relatively flat or below.

It's hard to tell whether or not Veritas' new bets in clustering and high end storage management are paying off.

The company showed an increase in license fees to $261 million from $241 million in last year's Q2 and a rise in services to $151 million from $123 million. The problem is that Veritas does not break out where this revenue comes from, so it may well be the standard back-up software, volume managers and file-systems making the gains.

Veritas expects revenue between $420 million and $430 million for its third quarter.

Shares in the company rose in the after-hours market by as much as 6 percent, at the time of this report to $29.52. ®