EMC reports 23% surge in Q1 profit

EMC Corp, the world’s biggest maker of storage computers, says first-quarter profit rose 23% as companies housed increasing volumes of data and purchased more software from majority-owned VMware Inc.

Net income advanced to $586.8m (€717m), or 27 cents a share, from $477.1m, or 21 cents, a year earlier, the Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based company said.

Excluding some items, profit was 37 cents, compared with the 36-cent average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

EMC is benefiting as customers buy more of its storage software, including products from the Isilon unit it acquired in 2010 in its biggest-ever acquisition, Alex Kurtz, an analyst at Sterne Agee, said in a note last week.

EMC said it will “meet or potentially exceed” its prior full-year 2012 forecasts for revenue and profit.

The company employs 2,500 people in Ireland, mostly in Ovens, Co Cork.

“Investors had hoped for a potential raise,” in the 2012 forecast, said Mark Moskowitz, an analyst at JPMorgan & Chase Coin San Francisco, in a report.

“No change to outlook could be a jump ball,” he said.

The company in January forecast full-year 2012 revenue of $22bn and profit excluding some items of $1.70 a share.

That compares with an average analyst estimate of $22.2bn and profit of $1.75 a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

First-quarter sales advanced 11% to $5.09bn, compared with the $5.11bn average estimate.

EMC’s results in the quarter were also helped by corporate spending on VMware’s virtualisation software to cut costs by putting multiple applications on a single server computer.

VMware, the biggest maker of software that lets computers run multiple operating systems, reported profit of 66 cents, excluding some items, exceeding the 60-cent average estimate.

Sales rose to $1.06bn from $843.7m, topping the $1.03bn average prediction.