Plantronics 3Q earnings fall despite UC record revenues

Plantronics (NYSE: PLT) Tuesday reported lower profits in its third quarter than a year ago, but still beat Wall Street's expectations, setting UC revenue records along the way.

Net income for the quarter was $30.9 million, or 71 cents a share, down slightly from $31.6 million, or 64 cents a share a year ago. Adjusted net income was 75 cents per share, topping analyst's forecasts of 68 cents per share, and topping last year's adjusted income of 66 cents per share. The lower profits were primarily due to Plantronic buying back 2.1 million shares.

Revenue, meanwhile was $183.2 million, up slightly from $181.6 million during the same period a year ago.

Plantronics said it expected a strong fourth quarter, forecasting revenue of between $175 million and $180 million for the quarter, with net income of 63-68 cents per share. Analysts expected revenue of $1877.6 million and adjusted earnings of 67 cents per share .

During yesterday's earnings call, Ken Kannappan, Plantronics' president and chief executive, said the company set a record in the quarter for UC revenue, which saw 90 percent growth due to rapid adoption of UC globally. The company also saw 8 percent growth in office and contact center revenue.

"We continue to see broad adoption of UC across all size of enterprises in all major geographies," he said. "Our investments in UC continued to yield solid results. And, in the first nine months of fiscal 2012, we made good progress in differentiating our product line, as well as making huge strides in our corporate marketing and brand positioning."

For more:
- see this release
- see this earnings call transcript from Seeking Alpha

Special Report: Enterprise Communications earnings in the fourth quarter 2011

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