What: Shares of Keysight Technologies (KEYS 1.42%) were up 11.7% as of 12:15 p.m. Thursday after the electronic measurement technologies company released better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results.
So what: Quarterly fell 12% year over year to $665 million, and would have fallen a more modest 9% had it not been for the negative effects of currencies and acquisitions. That translated to a 29.3% decline in adjusted net income to $94 million, and a 31.3% decrease in adjusted net income per diluted share to $0.55. This might not sound impressive, but analysts were anticipating lower revenue and earnings of $657 million and $0.46 per share, respectively.
Keysight CEO Ron Nersesian called it a "solid profit performance [...] despite a challenging market environment," and elaborated that Keysight's $606 million acquisition of wireless testing specialist Anite closed ahead of schedule exactly one week ago. "The transaction is a significant step forward," added Nersesian, "as we execute our strategy to grow in wireless and expand our software solutions."
Now what: For the current quarter, Keysight anticipates revenue of $735 million to $775 million, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.57 to $0.71. The midpoint of both ranges sits well above analysts' models, which called for fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $708.7 million, and earnings of $0.62 per share.
Finally, for the full fiscal year 2015, Keysight expects revenue of $2.84 billion to $2.88 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.38 to $2.52. Wall Street was less optimistic here again, with consensus estimates predicting fiscal 2015 revenue of $2.81 billion, and earnings of $2.34 per share.
In the end, this was undoubtedly a solid quarter relative to analysts' expectations. As a result -- and while I'm not personally intrigued enough to dive in given Keysight's lack of revenue and earnings growth for now -- I can't blame the market for bidding up Keysight Technologies stock today.
