Santa Ana-based STEC Inc., a maker of data storage drives that use memory chips instead of disks, beat first-quarter expectations and upped its guidance for the current quarter, sending its shares up.
Shares of STEC were up 15% at the close of New York trading with a market value of $535 million.
The company reported first-quarter profit of $3.6 million, up 40% from a year earlier.
Analysts on average excepted a profit of $1.5 million.
Sales were up 7.4% to $50.7 million, beating Wall Street’s expected $46 million.
For the current quarter, STEC projected it could see a profit of $3.6 million to $4.1 million.
Analysts had been expecting a profit of $3 million.
Revenue could come in at $52 million to $54 million, above the $50 million analysts had been expecting.
STEC makes memory-based drives for servers and laptop computers. The drives, which are more expensive than traditional disk drives, have made some inroads in gaining market share.
In January, STEC said it started production at a Malaysia plant, which is at 20% capacity and is expected to grow.
The company expects to include startup costs from the plant in its third-quarter results.
