Because of issues with tax accounting, Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE:CSC) had to delay its fiscal Q4 report. But that's really a technical matter -- the big concern for investors is that there may be a general slowdown in information technology spending for North America.
After the bell yesterday, the IT services company reported Q4 revenue that edged up 4% to $4.05 billion and net income that increased 57% to $249.7 million, or $1.42 per share. It was a strong performance.
There was a 4.8% increase in revenue for the North America public sector, and it looks like the growth will continue. A big driver is the Department of Defense's need to beef up its security.
The major weak spot came from the 3% fall-off in commercial contracts in North America. It's not clear if this is a short-run problem. But other players, like EMC (NYSE:EMC) and IBM (NYSE:IBM), have also shown weakness.
CSC's $1.3 billion acquisition of Covansys (NASDAQ:CVNS) in April may help, though. The deal will expand CSC's presence in the North American commercial market in such areas as telecom, tech, and retail.
The other nice benefit of the deal is the increased headcount of Indian employees, to 14,000. That should reduce overall costs, and it's a strategy that has worked for global operators like Accenture (NYSE:ACN).
CSC's full-year forecast is for revenue increases of 6% to 7% and earnings per share of $4.00 to $4.20. While this is fine, it's not enough to get investors excited. The IT slowdown is still a concern, and the company will need to integrate the Covansys transaction. So for Foolish investors, it looks like things may not rev up until next year.
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Fool contributor Tom Taulli, author of The Complete M&A Handbook, does not own shares mentioned in this article. He is currently ranked 2,150 out of more than 30,000 in CAPS. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
