Profit Up, Sales Flat For Hyperion

Hyperion Solutions Corp. on Tuesday reported strong earnings growth for its third quarter, although software sales were virtually flat compared with a year ago.

For the quarter ended March 31, the maker of business-performance and business-intelligence apps reported a profit of $8.3 million, or 23 cents per share, on sales of $126.6 million, compared with a profit of $3.1 million, 9 cents per share, on sales of $120 million a year earlier.

While Hyperion's total revenue was up 6%, software-license revenue was up less than a percent, to $50.4 million. Most of the company's revenue gain came from a 9% increase in maintenance and service-related revenue, which totaled $76.1 million in the third quarter. The company says that indirect channels, including its partnership with IBM, accounted for 30% of all license revenue.

For the nine months ended March 31, Hyperion reported a profit of $24.9 million (71 cents per share) on sales of $372.5 million, compared with a profit of $8.8 million (26 cents per share) on sales of $356.2 million for the same period in fiscal 2002.