What happened
Shares of Unisys (UIS 1.88%) closed Wednesday's trading session 13.2% higher, following Tuesday night's release of impressive second-quarter results. Earlier in the day, Unisys' share prices jumped as much as 17.1% higher.
So what
In the second quarter, the IT consulting and outsourcing veteran saw revenue climbing 0.2% above the year-ago period's figure, stopping at $667 million. On the bottom line, adjusted earnings grew more than 5 times larger and landed at $0.39 per diluted share. The Street consensus had called for earnings near $0.18 per share on sales in the neighborhood of $662 million. Looking ahead, management's full-year guidance for adjusted revenues centered at $2.76 billion, a hair below the current analyst view.
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Now what
The company delivered 2% higher service revenue to make up for declining technology sales. Operating margin improved in both of these reporting segments. Big contract wins during the quarter included a platform to help the federal government organize its biometric data collections, as well as modernizing upgrades to older Unisys systems at the state government level in Hawaii and Georgia.
This stock has now climbed 78.5% higher year to date, bouncing back from a deep winter trough to create a 15% 52-week price increase. The stock still looks inexpensive, trading at 8.8 times forward earnings and 0.3 times trading sales. It's no surprise to see investors embracing these firm signs of life in a company that had fairly recently been left for dead.
