SeaChange fiscal 1Q profit surges on gains in software revenue

SeaChange profit surges on software gains

ACTON, Mass. — SeaChange International Inc. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit surged on higher sales of software for video-on-demand television services.

SeaChange also forecast second-quarter profit and revenue in line with Wall Street expectations.

The company reported net income of $24.6 million, or 78 cents per share, for the three months ended April 30, compared with a profit of nearly $1 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Excluding one-time items — including a pretax $25.2 million gain from the sale of an ownership stake in Casa Systems — SeaChange posted net income of $3.1 million, or 10 cents per share, in the latest quarter. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of 8 cents per share, on average.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $54.1 million from $48.9 million. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $53.7 million in the latest quarter.

SeaChange’s software segment saw revenue jump 34 percent to $40.9 million. That gain offset a decrease in servers and storage revenue, which dropped by about 52 percent to $6.8 million from $14 million. SeaChange attributed that decline to fewer shipments of video-on-demand servers compared with an unusually high number shipped in the year-ago quarter.

SeaChange, based in Acton, expects a second-quarter profit, excluding one-time items, of 10 cents per share to 14 cents per share on revenue of $53 million to $55 million. Those ranges are in line with analysts’ consensus forecast for a profit of nearly 12 cents per share on revenue of $54.3 million.

SeaChange reported first-quarter results after its shares rose 29 cents, or nearly 3.9 percent, to close at $7.82.