Emulex Ends Quarter Exceeding Forecasts; Product Demand Up

Emulex Corp., a Costa Mesa maker of high-speed computer products, said Thursday that first-quarter net income nearly doubled, boosted by demand for fiber channel adapters.

The company earned $12.9 million, or 33 cents a share, for the fiscal quarter ended Oct. 1. Analysts had expected a profit of 26 cents a share, according to a survey by First Call/Thomson Financial. A year ago, Emulex earned $6.8 million, or 18 cents a share.

Quarterly revenue rose 92% to $55.5 million from $28.9 million.

Growing demand for storage and a shortage of information technology resources has boosted demand for Emulex products, Paul Folino, the company’s president, said in a statement.

Michael Rockenbach, the chief financial officer, said the company planned to expand its investments in engineering equipment, research and development and information technology infrastructure. It also plans to make “additional strategic investments” in technology companies that focus on storage networking solutions, he said.

The company’s stock gained $18.06 a share to close at $148 Thursday before the earnings report was released. After the report was made public, the shares jumped as high as $160 in after-hours trading on Nasdaq.

The price has remained high since recovering quickly from a false report issued over the Internet in August that sent its shares plummeting 62% in less than 30 minutes. Mark Simeon Jakob, 23, of El Segundo was indicted on 11 counts of securities and wire fraud in the hoax. The case is pending.

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Reuters and Bloomberg News were used in compiling this report.