Markit Q3 Profit Meets Estimates

reported in-line earnings for the third quarter on Tuesday. The company reported a quarterly profit of $6.5 million, or $0.04 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $79.2 million, or $0.43 per share. Excluding items, the company's earnings came in at $0.37 per share. Its revenue rose 2.8 percent year-over-year to $277.3 million from $269.7 million. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.37 per share on revenue of $276.61 million. The average estimate among 30 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.38 per share and revenue of $279.61 million. Revenue in information segment rose 2.2 percent to $126.1 million for the quarter, while processing segment revenue dropped 15.1 percent to $61.3 million. Revenue in solutions segment jumped 21.3 percent to $89.9 million in the quarter. Operating expenses rose 5.0 percent to $149.7 million in the quarter, while personnel costs gained 1.4 percent to $87.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin shrank to 44.9 percent from 47.3 percent. "We continued to perform well in the third quarter. I am particularly pleased with the strong organic growth in our Information and Solutions divisions and that despite a tougher quarter for Processing, our focus on cost control allowed us to deliver continued strong margins," said Lance Uggla, chairman and chief executive officer of Markit. Markit shares rose 1.97 percent to close at $30.02 yesterday.