Shares of Irvine-based business software maker Epicor Software Corp. fell on Wednesday after the company gave an outlook for the current quarter that failed to woo investors.
Investors sent shares down more than 2% in afterhours trading on a recent market value of about $700 million.
For the first quarter, Epicor said it’s expecting to see adjusted profits of $8 million to $10 million, in line with Wall Street’s expectations of $9 million in profits.
Epicor’s looking for sales of $110 million to $113 million, in line with analysts’ expected $111 million in sales.
“We are entering 2011 with strong momentum and we expect a strong quarter,” Chief Executive George Klaus said.
The guidance came on the heels of Epicor’s fourth-quarter results, which fell short of expectations.
Excluding charges for stock compensation, restructuring, write-downs on assets and other onetime costs, Epicor posted $11 million in profits, flat from a year earlier and below analysts’ expected $13 million in profits.
Epicor saw $117 million in sales, up 5% but short of analysts’ expected $120 million in sales.
Epicor said that the missed fourth-quarter results came as some large deals took longer than expected to close.
“Our strong software pipelines held up throughout the quarter, even though some larger opportunities did not close at the end of Q4 as anticipated,” Klaus said. “These larger opportunities were not lost and some merely require finalizing negotiations.”
Epicor’s software helps big companies manage their operations, back-end tasks and customer relationships.
It serves corporations in the manufacturing, retail and distribution industries.
In December, Epicor bought Denver’s Spectrum Human Resource Systems Corp. for $16 million.
Spectrum, a privately held maker of Internet-based software that manages back office tasks such as hiring, tracking timesheets, performance reviews and benefits administration, was folded into a newly formed Epicor division, dubbed the “human capital management” group.
