What happened
Shares of Keysight Technology (KEYS 0.79%) have popped today, up by 13% as of 2:45 p.m. EDT, after the company reported fiscal third-quarter earnings. Both top- and bottom-line results came in ahead of consensus estimates.
So what
Revenue in the fiscal third quarter jumped 8% to $1.09 billion, compared to the $1.05 billion in sales that analysts were expecting. That translated into adjusted net income of $239 million, or $1.25 per share. The market was expecting just $1.02 per share in adjusted profits. The industrial services company finished the quarter with $1.4 billion in cash on the balance sheet.
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"Keysight delivered another excellent quarter with both revenue and earnings exceeding the high-end of our guidance," CEO Ron Nersesian said in a statement. "Record third quarter revenue was driven by growth across the majority of our end markets as we continued to capture a significant portion of the demand we see in the marketplace."
Now what
Nersesian added that Keysight was boosting its full-year outlook thanks to the strong momentum. The company expects fiscal fourth-quarter revenue to be in the range of $1.08 billion to $1.1 billion, which should result in adjusted earnings per share of $1.14 to $1.20. That would represent full-year revenue growth of 9% to 10%, up from Keysight's prior forecast of 7% to 8% growth, CFO Neil Dougherty noted on the conference call.
Keysight has been hit by the Trump administration's Huawei ban, but the challenges haven't been as bad as expected. "To date, we have been able to ship some products to [Huawei] within the current legal regulations," Dougherty said. "As a result, we expect to see a slightly smaller headwind in Q4 than previously anticipated."
