NICE-Systems Ltd. (NICE)

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Nice Systems beat forecasts with $98 million revenues for second quarter

02.8.06 | 15:11 By Shirley Yom-Tov

The stock charts of tech stocks, especially Israeli ones, aren't particularly appetizing these days. Negative sentiment on Nasdaq in general has been sharpened by the fighting in Israel's north and shares in Nice Systems (NASDAQ:NICE) have been no safe haven. But from May it's lost only 9%, compared with double and triple that in the case of other technology companies.

Raanana-based Nice today published its second-quarter results, which explained the relative resilience of its stock. (No, it isn't because Raanana isn't within Katyusha range.) Sales ran high and the company even raised its guidance for the year 2006, spurring its dual-listed share to a 4.5% rise on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Nice, which sells advanced video and voice digital recording systems, made $97.7 million in revenues, up 35% against the corresponding quarter of 2005 and well above Wall Street expectations of $93.4 million in sales.

Stock options costs were $2.2 million in the quarter. Minus that, and another $1.6 million provision, it netted a record $14.6 million, double its earnings in the same period of 2005.

Earnings per share was 28 cents, beating the Street forecast by 2 cents per share.

Nice CEO Haim Shani said demand had been strong across the board.

About 75% of the company's revenues originated from the civilian sector and 25% from defense, a fast-growing field. In the civilian sector Nice sells recording systems for call and customer service centers, while its offerings for the military and government sectors are mainly multi-camera information recording systems.

For the year 2006 Nice now foresees revenues in the range of $408 million to $417 million, against its prior forecast of $395-405 million. Wall Street has been expecting sales of $406 million for the year.

It expects to net $1.06-1.15 per share for the year, compared with the Street forecast of $1.08 per share.

For the third quarter of 2006, Nice says it expects sales of $108-112 million and earnings of 27-31 cents per share.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745633.html

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