Concur Q1 Loss Widens, But Revenues Beat View; Sees Q2 Results Above Estimates

(RTTNews) - Expense management software maker Concur Technologies, Inc. (CNQR) on Wednesday reported a loss for the first quarter that widened from last year, as higher revenues were offset by an increase in expenses. However, revenues for the quarter beat analysts' expectations.

Looking ahead, Concur forecast earnings and revenue growth for the second quarter above Street estimates and maintained its financial outlook for fiscal 2014. Shares of the company gained more than 7 percent in extended trades.

Steve Singh, Chairman and CEO of Concur said, "New customer growth remains very robust as more than 1,000 new customers joined the Concur family. We saw continued traction around our open platform initiatives as customers, travelers, developers and partners embrace TripLink and the Concur T&E Cloud."

The Washington-based integrated travel and expense management solutions provider reported net loss for the first quarter of $24.22 million or $0.43 per share, wider than loss of $12.03 million or $0.22 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted pretax income for the quarter was $12.45 million or 0.21 per share, compared to adjusted pretax income of $17.21 million or 0.30 per share in the year-ago quarter. On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.13 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenue for the quarter grew 33 percent to $163.08 million from $122.80 million in the year-ago period. Excluding revenue from businesses that the company plans to divest, adjusted revenues increased 31 percent to $160.30 million. Analysts had a consensus estimate of $156.24 million.

Adjusted operating margin for the quarter was 9.6 percent, compared to 15.4 percent for the year-ago quarter.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, Concur forecasts adjusted pretax earnings of $0.14 per share and adjusted revenue to grow about 30 percent from last year. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.12 per share for the quarter on revenue growth of 28.1 percent to $163.17 million.

For fiscal 2014, Concur maintained its outlook for adjusted pre-tax earnings of at least $0.93 per share on anticipated adjusted revenue growth of about 26 percent. Street is currently looking for full-year earnings of $0.70 per share on annual revenue growth of 26.4 percent to $686.45 million.

Steve Singh, said, "Driven by a strong demand environment and strong business execution, we are continuing to invest in our vision of the Perfect Trip and to drive greater efficiency into the corporate travel supply chain. That commitment to industry transformation is driving greater value for our customers, for business travelers and our partners and is fueling our capacity to cross $1 billion in annual revenues in the years ahead."

CNQR closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $108.86, down $2.71 or 2.43 percent on a volume of 757,966 shares. However, in after-hours, the stock gained $7.64 or 7.02 percent to $116.50.