Ebix Q3 Earnings Fall

(RTTNews) - Software outsourcing company Ebix, Inc (EBIX) Friday reported a drop in earnings for the third quarter as revenue declined.

Earnings fell to $13.1 million, or $0.34 per share, from $18.1 million, or $0.46 per share, a year earlier.

Further hurting the earnings results for the quarter, the company paid out $4.2 million for a litigation settlement.

For the three months to September, revenue declined to $50.3 million from $53.8 million a year earlier. The Exchange channel, the primary source of revenue for the company, decreased to $40.5 million from $43.6 million. Revenue for the quarter was additionally impacted by about $1.6 million, due to the strengthening of the US dollar and also by a $1.3 million drop in revenue from one of the company's 2012 acquistions, PlanetSoft.

Ebix held cash and cash equivalents of $36.9 million at the end of the third quarter, compared with $29.5 million a year earlier.

Significantly, the company stated, "We continued to strengthen our recurring business, by signing new clients while at the same time retaining our existing client base. In fact, the agreement with one of our new clients has the potential to result in a relationship that will generate revenues in 2014 and beyond that are larger than those from any single client that we currently serve."

Thursday, the stock closed at $30.11 on the Nasdaq.