Manugistics Reports Record Revenue Again

Supply-chain-management software vendor Manugistics Group Inc., which provided one of the few rays of hope when it posted earnings a quarter ago in a bad season for application software vendors, reported record revenue for the third quarter in a row for the period ended May 31. Chairman and CEO Greg Owens says he expects revenue growth for the fiscal year to be more than 50%.

Total revenue for the first quarter increased 78%, to $89.8 million, compared with $50.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. Software revenue increased 73%, to $45.1 million, from $26 million in the same period the previous year. The company reported adjusted net income of $2.2 million, or 3 cents per basic and diluted share, compared with an adjusted net loss of $0.8 million, or 1 cent per basic and diluted share, in the same period last year. Manugistics fared slightly better than Wall Street estimates of $88.9 million in revenue with earnings of 3 cents a share.

In a conference call, Owens said Manugistics' focus on high-return-on-investment offerings, including its supply-chain management and pricing- and revenue-optimization software, made the company a winner in the quarter despite the economic downturn. The company saw some of its customers pull out of deals in the quarter, he said, but the company had built a larger-than-normal pipeline of business that compensated for the pullback. The company signed 35 significant deals, 54% of them with new customers. The average deal size was $1.3 million.

Owens said the company is beginning to see signs of increased sales activity for the current quarter, which he said bodes well for Manugistics: "If conditions [in the economy] don't deteriorate, we will be able to meet or exceed our guidance for the fiscal year."