Fibre Channel HBA maker, Emulex Corp. (Nasdaq: EMLX) surged Friday on the strength of its quarterly earnings report -- and took its closest competitors and allies in the sector along for the ride.
Despite a downgrade by Wells Fargo Van Kasper from a Strong Buy to a Buy rating on Friday, Emulexs stock eventually closed up $4.60, or 22.9 percent, to $24.65, on the day.
The company posted a steep net loss for its fiscal first quarter Thursday, but operating earnings of $7.5 million still crept ahead of forecasts. The results were a cent per share ahead of the $0.08 cents forecast by analysts surveyed by First Call.
For the first quarter ended in September, pro forma net income -- including deferred employee compensation, acquisition write-offs, and a one-time inventory writedown -- Emulex reported a net loss of $40 million, or $0.49 a share, compared with $12.9 million loss, or $0.17 cents, for the same quarter a year earlier.Excluding the one-time items, operating net income dropped to $7.5 million, down $0.09 per diluted share. Revenues slipped to $52.7 million, down 5 percent from the $55.5 million reported for the same quarter a year ago.
The news appeared to have a positive knock-on effect for other players in this sector, too, notably FC switch maker QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC), which swung up 6.5 percent to close at $38.50.