Crediting growing demand for new product lines, storage giant EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) today posted a higher than expected second-quarter profit today, but disappointing gross margins and a weak outlook for the current quarter sent its stock price spiraling down more than 9 percent in early afternoon trading (see EMC Posts Q2 Profit).
EMC posted a profit of $82 million, or 4 cents a share, for the quarter ended on June 30, holding its ground in the black for the second quarter running (see EMC's Back in Black). The company also saw its revenues for the quarter jump 7 percent, to $1.48 billion, compared with $1.39 billion for the year-ago quarter.
"When I look at our Q2 results, two words come to mind: solid and balanced," EMC president and CEO Joe Tucci said on a conference call this morning. "It would be really hard to demonstrate better balance than this." He pointed out that during the quarter the company's storage system and storage services revenues were up 7 percent quarter-over-quarter, while its storage software revenues jumped 8 percent sequentially.
EMC also noted that sales of its new Symmetrix DMX accelerated, accounting for about 80 percent of total Symm revenues in the second quarter, up from last quarter's 56 percent (see EMC Soups Up Symm).
Wall Street apparently doesn't agree that everything is looking up for EMC: The fact that its results grazed the high end of both analysts' and the company's own forecasts for the quarter didn't stop EMC's shares from slipping 9.1 percent in afternoon trading today, to $10.06 a share.
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