Shares of Aliso Viejo’s QLogic Corp., a maker of electronics for data storage networks, rose after the company reported results for the December quarter that topped analysts’ expectations.
Investors sent QLogic’s shares up 4% in afterhours trading on a recent market value of about $2 billion.
Excluding charges for stock compensation, acquisitions, income tax and other costs, the company posted profits of $43 million, up 5% from the same period a year earlier and beating analysts’ expected $37 million in profits.
Including the charges, QLogic saw profits of $31 million.
The company reported sales of $164 million, up 4% from the same period a year ago and in line with analysts’ expectations.
QLogic got a top-line boost from its fast-growing protocol chip product line.
Sales grew 78% to $17 million, up from $9 million in the year-ago quarter.
The company had $372 million in cash and short-term assets at the end of the year.
Its stock has held up fairly well during the past year. Shares are off about 14% in the past 12 months.
QLogic slowly has been gaining market share on rival Emulex Corp. of Costa Mesa for sales of host bus adapters, a profitable bit of electronics that speed up the flow of data on a storage network.
In the third quarter, the most recent data available, QLogic saw its market share rise to 55%, up from 48%, according to data collected by Redwood City-based Dell’Oro Group Inc.
For the same period, Emulex saw its share for host bus adapters fall to 37%, down from 42% a year earlier, Dell’Oro’s report shows.
