Digital River posts lower 1Q profit

E-commerce software service company Digital River Inc. said Wednesday its first-quarter profit inched lower, but the results surpassed the company's forecast and Wall Street's expectations.

The company earned $16.6 million, or 45 cents per share, down 9 percent from $18.3 million, or 43 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. The per-share results were higher in the latest quarter because the company had fewer outstanding shares.

Excluding items, Digital River earned 56 cents per share.

Revenue slid less than 1 percent to $102.9 million from $103.6 million.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 51 cents per share on sales $98.8 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. Analysts typically exclude one-time items from their estimates.

"We are very encouraged by the solid growth in our pipeline, the high caliber of companies that we are adding to our client list, and the moderate sequential increase we saw in e-commerce sales activity," said Joel Ronning, Digital River's chief executive, in a statement.

The company's shares rose $1.53, or 4.4 percent, to close at $36.35.