While Cisco warned of slowing tech spending for North America, BMC (NYSE: BMC) has been taking the opposite view. In fact, it isn't even seeing weakness in the financial sector -- perhaps because it recently landed a major contract with Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER).
For the third quarter, BMC's revenue came to $421 million, up 9% from the previous year. Bookings increased 8% to $341 million, indicating that customers continue to load up on BMC's software. The company generated strong operating cash flows, too, tripling in Q3 to $319 million. To top it all off, the company has about $1.5 billion in the bank.
More importantly, BMC thinks the momentum it's currently enjoying will continue. The company boosted its full-year earnings guidance to $1.78 to $1.86 per share, with revenue growth topping 6%.
Over the past few years, BMC has invested aggressively in broadening its product line, known as BSM (business service management) software. It helps companies manage a complex information technology (IT) environment by minimizing downtime, tracking assets, and improving security. These are must-have applications for major companies, and so far, BMC is competing effectively against rivals like IBM (NYSE: IBM), CA (NYSE: CA), and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ).
To further bolster its position, BMC continues to buy up companies. In Q3, it purchased Emprisa, which helps with large change-updates across networks, and RealOps, which helps automate some labor-intensive IT approaches.
However, the market might disagree with BMC's view on tech spending. The uncertainty regarding the U.S. economy could mute enthusiasm for large software players -- even those that are showing lots of strength. It may take until next year, as things get clearer, for investors to start warming up to companies like BMC.
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