Aliso Viejo’s Quest Software Inc., a maker of business software, on Thursday reported third-quarter results that beat Wall Street’s expectations.
Quest reported sales of $193 million, up 13% from a year earlier and beating analysts’ expectation of $189 million in revenue.
Excluding charges for stock compensation, income tax, write-downs on assets and other costs, Quest posted $37 million in profits, up 19% and beating analysts’ expectation of $32 million profits.
Quest makes software that manages and improves on other business applications by Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., IBM Corp. and others.
The company closed the quarter with $410 million in cash and short-term assets.
Quest made a dent in its cash stash with the acquisition of two small software makers in the third quarter.
It picked up Austin, Texas-based Surgient Inc. and Germany’s Völcker Informatik AG for undisclosed terms.
Quest didn’t give a business outlook for the current quarter.
Analysts, on average, are expecting Quest to report adjusted fourth-quarter profits of $39 million, up about 8%.
Sales are projected at $210 million, also up roughly 8%.
Quest is Orange County’s third-biggest software maker with some $700 million in yearly sales and had a recent market value of $2.4 billion.
