Brocade Down 2% After Q4 Results

Shares of Brocade Communications BRCD rallied along with the broader market on Monday ahead of the company's fourth-quarter earnings results. In after hours trade, however, the stock has lost around 2 percent. The company reported adjusted earnings for the quarter of $78 million or $0.17 per share. This compared to analysts' consensus EPS estimates of $0.14. Revenue in the period was $578 million versus $550 million last year. This also beat analysts' consensus revenue estimates of $566.58 million. Gross margin in the fourth-quarter was 62.4 percent from 59.5 percent last year. Operating margins also rose to about 15 percent, a gain of 500 basis points. Brocade CEO Michael Klayko said, "Our product portfolio across all areas of our business is the strongest it has ever been and we are driving industry transformation in emerging areas of growth including virtualized data centers, cloud computing, and software-defined networking." Brocade shares have been underperforming the market in 2012, registering a gain of a little less than 7 percent. Since hitting highs in September above $6.30 the stock has been trending lower along with the broader market. The company is a supplier of networking equipment, including end-to-end Internet Protocol-based Ethernet networking solutions and storage area networking solutions for businesses and organizations of all types and sizes, including global enterprises, and service providers, such as telecommunication firms, cable operators and mobile carriers.