Autonomy tops expectations

Autonomy has announced its full year results which came in ahead of analyst expectations. Revenues grew 37% to $343.4m and operating profits up 60%.

The following comments have been extracted from the Panmore Gordon morning note written by George O'Connor.

Operational highlights included 13 OEMs signed – underlining the view that Autonomy is now the default OEM, ASP increased to $390k from $375k – a rarity in the sector and illustrative of Autonomy’ s strong competitive position, a Q4 operating margin of 36% - indicating the strength of the operating model. Autonomy comments that sub-prime has been positive for its business.

Autonomy is a gorilla in its target areas of enterprise search. Its strong execution in these markets is resulting in positive earnings growth and surprises as these markets go through a structural step change in IT spend. The Zantaz acquisition expanded the business into e­Archiving and discovery and has since been stimulated by a legislative push. Autonomy has not been impacted by financial services or indeed concerns about any softening in IT spending levels in 2008. Indeed Autonomy comments that it has not seen any change in trading conditions.

Autonomy shares are up 2% at 862p (10.30am). But it seems to be a rare morning where almost all the tech stocks are 'in the black'.